PETALING JAYA: Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) has ventured into Vietnam’s renewable energy (RE) market via the acquisition of a 39% stake in a 21.6MW 5-rooftop solar plant project from Singapore’s Sunseap Group by its wholly owned subsidiary, TNB Renewables Sdn Bhd.
It highlighted that the project secured the feed-in-tariff (FiT) under Vietnam’s FiT2 scheme which intends to promote investment in RE sources through lucrative and above market rate tariffs. It also extends TNB’s collaboration with Sunseap, beyond the Malaysia and Singapore cross border partnership.
The group stated that the rooftop project achieved commercial operation in December last year with all five plants under a 20-year power purchase agreement with the state-owned utility company, Vietnam Electric to supply power to the country’s national grid.
Its president and CEO Datuk Baharin Din commented that the acquisition marks another step forward towards its RE and utility businesses growth ambitions in Southeast Asia.
“This acquisition will serve as a beachhead for TNB to establish a local presence in Vietnam and expand into the rapidly growing RE and utility market in Vietnam,” he said a statement.
“This acquisition builds on our earlier Malaysia-Singapore cross-border collaboration with Sunseap and demonstrates our commitment in transforming TNB into a regional RE and utility player.”
Following the completion of the acquisition slated for the first quarter of 2021, Sunseap’s stake in the project will be reduced to 51% from 90% previously while existing shareholder, Sun Times Energy Joint Stock Co will continue to hold a 10%-equity in the project.
Prior to this acquisition, TNB’s global presence in RE consists of a total portfolio of 2,732.3MW in Malaysia and 666MW across the UK, Turkey and India comprising mainly solar, wind and hydro energy generation assets.
The group stated it aims to grow the portfolio to 8,300MW by 2025.
