Comintel gets third extension for FiT commencement

by **Cals** Fri 01 Jul 2016, 01:27

Comintel gets third extension for FiT commencement

By Meena Lakshana / theedgemarkets.com | June 30, 2016 : 3:09 PM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR (June 30): Comintel Corp Bhd's supply of renewable energy (RE)-derived power to Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) will be delayed by four months, as the company has yet to obtain the approval for its permanent licence from the Energy Commission (EC).

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, Comintel said the Sustainable Energy Development Authority Malaysia (SEDA) has granted approval to Comintel to extend the feed in tariff (FiT) commencement date to Sept 2, 2016 from May 31, 2016.

Comintel said its subsidiary Comintel Green Technologies Sdn Bhd (CGT) sought an extension from SEDA on April 29, 2016 as it was not able to meet the scheduled FiT commencement date due to its inability to obtain the approval for the permanent licence from the EC by that date.

"We have been informed that our application for (the) permanent licence can only be tabled in the EC's board meeting scheduled to be held at the end of June 2016," the filing stated.

"CGT cannot commence its operation until the permanent licence is granted by the EC as it is one of the requirements under SEDA's FiT," it added.

Comintel said CGT should be able to meet the new extended FiT commencement date and is expected to contribute positively to the financial year ending Jan 31, 2017.

This is the third extension Comintel has been granted for the commencement of its RE power to TNB.

The group plans to set up a RE power plant, which will sell back converted electrical power to TNB's grid.

However, the project has hit snags.

On Jan 7 this year, Comintel said it faced another delay in providing the power supply to TNB due to problems relating to feedstock and its synthesis gas engine and had requested an extension to the FiT commencement date to May 31, 2016 after SEDA approved the application in a letter dated Dec 31, 2015.

The company had first announced a delay on July 22 last year, after a gasifier system failed to operate at optimum capacity, following which it was granted an extension for the commencement of its feed-in-tariff (FiT) to Dec 31, 2015 from May 31, 2015 by SEDA.

CGT was granted a FiT approval on July 9, 2014 by SEDA to convert biomass into RE and supply it to TNB at 42.31 sen per kWh for a 16-year period.

CGT in June 2015 signed a RE power purchase agreement with TNB to start supplying RE-derived power from May 31, 2015.

At 2.50pm Comintel fell 1.5 sen or 1.83% to 80.5 sen, with 3.5 million shares done.