PULAU PINANG, Jan 16 (Bernama) -- Producers of power from renewable energysources such as solar and biomass have been urged to produce more poweramounting to 10 megawatt to help the government reach its target of powergeneration from new energy sources at between 500 MW and 600 MW or fivepercent more in the next four years.

Chairman of the Malaysian Energy Commission, Datuk Ir Mohd Annas Mohd Norsaid that the commission has introduced a Small Renewable Energy Program(SREP) to encourage the producers to increase their respective powergeneration capacity.

"Interested parties can come to the commission for further information aswe have a plan to meet the target of between 500 MW and 600 MW productionof power from new sources under the Eighth Malaysia Plan," he said.

He said this to reporters after officiating a seminar on "Energy andEnvironment" organised by the Centre for Education and Training InRenewable Energy and Energy Efficency (CENTREE), Universiti Sains Malaysia(USM) here Wednesday.

Mohd Annas said that under the SREP, two producers have signed sales andpurchase agreement to buy energy from biomass and re from Tenaga NasionalBhd at the price of 16 sen per unit, while 12 more producers were beingconsidered given the rights to sell their respective production of power.

He, however, said many more new power sources were still required tofulfill the target and factories, particularly those that produce palm oilwhich use biomass should take the opportunity to produce energy to meetthe target.

Currently, many oil palm companies produce energy for their own use and ifthey have the capacity to produce more, this could be connected to theTenaga Nasional Grid System or Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd in Sabah for saleto the public, he said.

On the fixing of electric price from new energy sources such as solar andbiomass, he said that there were many biomass based producers who werewilling to sell at 16 sen per unit.

He added that he was not confident about raising the price to 40 sen perunit.

The government is encouraging a price of between 14 sen and 17 sen perunit for the energy from new sources, he said.

He, however, said the commission was ready to study the cost of powerproduction from the new sources to fix the prices so that they would bedifferent from the prices for energy from sources such as oil, gas andcoal.

In his speech, Mohd Annas said that RE and EE as the fifth source ofenergy for the country, were aimed at increasing the country'sproductivity and competitiveness, reducing the government's investment inenergy conservation and increasing the sustainability of non-renewableenergy sources as well as cutting down government expenditure andpreserving the environment.

He said the commission was established in May 1 2001 and began fulloperations in January 2 with emphasis on the RE and EE sector to reach theobjective of providing sufficient energy source at reasonable cost.

Apart from that, he said the commission was also responsible for thedevelopment of the power industry.

At the event today, Mohd Annas also presented a cheque worth RM150,000 tothe Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Development) of USM, ProfAhyaudin Ali. The cheque was the commission's contribution towards theCENTREE's research efforts. -- BERNAMA