Rising Electricity Charges Push Malaysian Businesses Toward Solar and Battery Storage

Key figures

• ●Nanyang Property reported maximum-demand charges for medium-voltage business users rising 115%-200%, with data centres' overall power costs up about 25%
• ●PETRA's CRESS Acceleration Package (Sept 18, 2026) cuts the System Access Charge for firm green power to 14 sen/kWh, with a 10-year minimum contract and a Dec 31, 2028 completion deadline, Bernama reported
• ●CRESS has registered 11 renewable energy developers and 8 green consumers covering about 3,148MW, per Bernama and Nanyang Property
• ●New data centres must source at least 30% renewable energy; The Star cited HLIB Research estimating a RM9bil-RM36bil market from a 5GW pipeline, versus Nanyang Property's RM19bil estimate
• ●Nanyang Property reported LSS6 will add 2.65GW of solar with a mandatory 1.25GW battery storage requirement
• ●Nanyang Property reported the household exemption threshold rose from 600 to 800kWh, with SuRIA Home rebates up to RM3,000 and solar payback stretching to 7-8 years

News summary

Malaysian businesses, including data centre operators, are facing sharply higher electricity costs and are responding with battery storage and renewable-power contracts, Nanyang Property reported. Medium-voltage commercial and industrial users face maximum-demand charges rising 115% to 200%, while data centres are seeing overall electricity costs climb by roughly 25%, according to Nanyang Property. In response, businesses are installing battery energy storage systems to reduce peak-demand charges and signing long-term green electricity contracts to lock in pricing, Nanyang Property reported.

Those green contracts run through the Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme (CRESS), which the Energy Transition and Water Transformation Ministry (PETRA) strengthened via an Acceleration Package announced on September 18, 2026, Bernama reported. The package sets the System Access Charge (SAC) for firm green electricity supply at 14 sen per kWh, down from 20 sen and from the 25 sen rate set when CRESS launched in 2024, Bernama and The Star reported. Renewable energy developers and green consumers must sign contracts of at least 10 years, and projects must reach commercial operation by December 31, 2028 to keep the lower rate, Bernama reported, citing Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Transition and Water Transformation Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof. As of the announcement, 11 developers and 8 green consumers had registered under CRESS, covering about 3,148 megawatts of capacity, Bernama reported — a figure Nanyang Property also cited as 3,148MW, while The Star rounded it to roughly 3.15 gigawatts.

Data centres are a focus of the scheme: newly approved projects must source a minimum of 30% renewable energy, Nanyang Property and The Star reported. The Star, citing HLIB Research, estimated that an additional 5 gigawatts of data centre capacity could create a RM9 billion to RM36 billion renewable energy market depending on whether projects are capacity-matched or energy-matched. Nanyang Property instead put the data-centre-driven renewable energy demand at about 3.8 gigawatts, translating to an estimated RM19 billion in solar opportunities — a somewhat different figure from The Star's range, reflecting the two outlets' different methodologies.

On the generation side, Nanyang Property reported that the sixth round of the Large Scale Solar programme (LSS6) will add 2.65 gigawatts of capacity with a mandatory 1.25 gigawatt battery storage requirement attached, a detail not corroborated by the English-language outlets reviewed.

Households are also affected, according to Nanyang Property: the government raised the electricity bill exemption threshold from 600 to 800 kilowatt-hours of monthly usage, and the SuRIA Home programme offers installation rebates of up to RM3,000 for residential solar systems. At the same time, Nanyang Property reported that payback periods for residential solar have lengthened from five-to-six years to seven-to-eight years as equipment and grid-related costs rise. These household-side figures were not independently confirmed by the other outlets reviewed.