The Star
PETALING JAYA: The body responsible for managing renewable energy has refuted claims of irregularities in awarding approvals to produce solar energy to companies allegedly linked to the daughter of former chief secretary to the government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan.
PETALING JAYA: The body responsible for managing renewable energy has refuted claims of irregularities in awarding approvals to produce solar energy to companies allegedly linked to the daughter of former chief secretary to the government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan.
The selection was above board as it was done through an online system, said Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Seda) chairman Tan Sri Dr Fong Chan Onn.
“There is no manual intervention by anyone. The records in the computer are open for inspection,” he said when interviewed yesterday.
He was responding to claims by DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua who had alleged Suliana Mohd Sidek, her husband Todd Michael Morath as well as two business partners controlled 45.9MW or 32.4% of the total quota through their 12 companies to produce solar energy via the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) mechanism.
Each company can only produce a maximum of 5MW of energy.
Pua, in a press conference, alleged what was shocking was that 10 of the companies were set up only in November, 2011, less than one month before applications for the renewable energy permits were supposed to be given out on Dec 2, 2011.
Dr Fong explained that the companies had met all the necessary technical criteria as well as financial commitments.
“We do not know who owned the companies. Anyone in the world can apply to participate in the scheme as long as the criteria are met,” he said.
Although the companies had been given approval to generate solar energy, no payment had been disbursed as the Seda board which met two weeks ago found that the companies had difficulties in making sufficient progress in fulfilling their energy quota, and their request for an extension had been denied by the board, added Dr Fong.
However, they have 30 days to appeal to the Green Technology, Energy and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui.
“Seda will be very strict in monitoring the implementation of this to ensure that our aim of generating renewable energy is fulfilled,” he said, adding that they are encouraging more applications from the public.
He added that the board is currently mulling to prevent multiple companies linked to the same individuals from applying for the FiT.
Seda is a statutory body formed under the Sustainable Energy Development Authority Act 2011 to administer and manage the implementation of the FiT mechanism.
Under this mechanism, individuals and companies in the renewable energy sector can apply to Seda to sell their renewable energy toTenaga Nasional Bhd.
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