Kota Kinabalu: Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Seda) Chairman Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai has been taken to task by a DAP lawmaker for allegedly being non-transparent in the allocation of the Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) for the solar Photovoltaic (PV) quota above 425kW and up to 1MW.Member of Parliament Jimmy Wong said just like for the category of below 425kW where the non-individual applicants need to go through the process of open balloting, similarly, Seda should be equally transparent in the allocation of 32MW of the solar PV quota capacity above 425kW and up to 1MW.
According to him, Seda is scheduled to hold another open ballot on March 9 for 20MW of the solar PV quota of up to 425kW.
"However, 32MW of the solar PV quota above 425kW and up to 1MW is open for 'manual submission'," he said.
"The current practice of awarding for the solar PV quota capacity above 425kW and up to 1MW is based on the merit points obtained by each applicant and the submission is done manually.
"It opens up to the possible interference by politicians in favour of those well-connected," he claimed.
According to information from industry sources, applicants for quota under the 2015 FiT Quota Allocation for solar PV are first assessed by the Assessment Committee, so that applicants are pre-selected by the Assessment Committee before it reaches decision at the Ministry level.
The Assessment Committee is supposed to be guided by objective strict merit points that had been published.
"The allocation of such a quota is very valuable as it will mean millions of public fund collected from the public being paid to the applicant over a period of 21 years. The cumulative amount collected for the purpose through Renewable Energy (RE) fund inclusive of interest was RM928 million at the end of 2013," said Wong.
Wong said the Assessment Committee report must be scrutinised because it is allegedly tainted with corruption.
"This insidious form of corruption has permeated our system even at its most primary level. Such corrupt practice occurs even before it reaches the Minister concerned." Wong said.
Other fraud of the FiT quota allocation is substantial numbers of applications were given extensions of their commissioning date deadlines.
As an example, a Malaysian solar manufacturer and project company has been awarded seven of 1MW solar PV projects but none of them seemed to have been completed or commissioned by Dec 31, 2014.
The backlog of these projects rolled onto February 2015 when a few started being completed, and these delays have incurred losses for their respective clients in the tune of millions of ringgit over the course of the 21-year period of Feed-in Tariff.
He said that many excuses were given over the cause of the delays, from pinning the project site conditions and also the utility company's inability to respond swiftly on their request.
"The delay and inability to meet prevailing deadlines have exemplified that these companies have limitations when it comes to deployment competencies and project coordination.
"It is therefore crucial for the public to note the release of 2015 above 425kW up to 1MW quota by Seda in these coming weeks, as to which developers and also service providers have been awarded quota and if they have previously failed to meet the December 2014 deadline.
"If any one such developer or service provider has been allocated a sizeable portion of the quota, it would be questionable and difficult to understand the decision of Seda to award these 2015 quota to under-performing companies and service providers," said Wong.
"Therefore, Yee, as the Chairman of Seda, should come clean with all these allegations by the industry player. Failing which, a formal report with the necessary evidence will be made to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission," he said.
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