The Malaysian Government has set an ambitious target to achieve a higher penetration of Renewable Energy (RE) in the Malaysian energy mix. To date, Malaysia has approximately 2% of its energy coming from RE generation sources compared to the total generation mix and targets achieving 20% penetration by 2025. The current energy mix for Malaysia power generation is mainly provided by natural gas and coal. The discussion will cover the traditional sources of generation including natural gas, coal and big hydro stations. In addition, the paper will cover in depth the potential of RE in the country, challenges, and opportunities in this sector. This study can give an initial evaluation of the Malaysian energy industry, especially for RE and can initiate further research and development in this area in order to support the Government target to achieve RE target of 20% by 2025.

The overhead transmission line system is one of the methods of transmitting electrical energy at a high voltage from one point to another, especially over long distances. The demand for electrical energy is increasing due to the increase in the world population, the evolution of transport technology, and economic expansion, thereby resulting in overloading to the overhead line (OHL) system. In building new infrastructure for transmission lines, several issues need to be addressed. Thus, optimizing existing power by increasing the ampacity of power line is a practical solution to meet energy demand issues. During long-term operation, the temperature of OHL conductors may increase beyond their rated temperature, which is typically 75 °C for conventional conductors such as aluminum-conductor steel-reinforced cable. This condition is defined as thermal stress, which results in lower sag vertical clearance, tensile loss, elongation and creep, and reduced life span of the conductors. This condition must be avoided to ensure that the line is not permanently elongated, which can disrupt the vertical ground clearance, and to expand the conductor’s life. Other factors such as lightning, wildfire, aging, and degradation of the conductor can also cause thermal stress on the conductors and have thermal effects on the conductor’s performance. Therefore, unwanted thermal stress needs to be examined and identified by monitoring the thermal effect and behavior of the lines. This paper presents the state of the art in monitoring technologies that can be used to identify thermal stress on OHL conductors, including the issues and challenges in monitoring. At the end of this paper, a few suggestions are included to address the occurrence and assessment of thermal stress in lines. Ultimately, this work may provide complete information to researchers and maintenance engineers to enable them to make better decisions on condition monitoring, operation, and maintenance of the system.

It is important to ensure that a grounding system is designed with a low magnitude of earth resistance, so the protection system can divert the large fault current to earth effectively. The performances and protection level of a grounding system need to be acknowledged as the condition of soil structure changes with different soil characteristics. At present, there is a lack of systematic guide or standards for grounding grid designs that consider non-uniform soil and its impact on the grounding systems. By computing the grid safety threshold parameters consisting of the grid impedance, step, and touch voltages, a comparison has been made between uniform soil and two-layer soil models. Where the competence and level of safety of the grounding systems depend on the soil attributes, the significant impact of various soil conditions is seen. The evaluations on performance and safety assessment in two-layer soil conditions hold the novelty and originality as there is no such comparison and discussion have been made to date. These comparisons would help in forecasting the behavior and safety of the grounding system in various soil environments, which would provide engineers with additional expertise to design an effective and secure grounding system. This research would contribute to the existing body of knowledge by differentiating and predicting the performance of a grounding system when the characteristics of the soil differ significantly from uniform soil as most of the standards and guidelines only consider uniform soil while designing a grounding system, owing to its complexity at the site.

This paper focuses on transits available around the world. AC voltage transits and DC voltage transit are reviewed and compared. Emphasis is given to differences, advantages and disadvantages of voltage supplies and traction types. First, differences between bus rapid transit (BRT), metro, light rail transit (LRT) and light metro are covered, with special attention to statistical of annual passengers per year, an attribute that defines the type of railway transit. Mention is also made to the history of DC and AC overhead wires, other traction preferences for metro transit and highlighted differences between the third rail and fourth rail traction. Malaysian transit systems are then discussed, with special attention to LRT Kelana Jaya line, world's third DC transit that employs the fourth rail traction. The discussion have produced relevant statistical data that this paper is in part aimed at summarizing and at comparing with what accomplished on the same subject within the third rail traction framework. The increased in LRT Kelana Jaya line annual passengers per year is a proof of success for the fourth rail technology.

With increased electrical energy demands projected in the future, the development of a hybrid solar photovoltaic (PV)–battery energy storage system is considered a good option. However, since such systems are normally installed outdoors and in open areas, they are vulnerable to lightning strikes and may suffer from malfunctions or significant damage to sensitive components, which may result in a major breakdown and loss of revenue due to equipment replacement costs and inefficient operation. Thus, the objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of lightning-induced overvoltage on a hybrid solar PV–battery energy storage system, considering indirect lightning strikes nearby the system. The presented hybrid solar PV–battery energy storage system and lightning-induced overvoltage are modeled in Electro-Magnetic Transient Program-Restructured Version (EMTP-RV) software. The lightning-induced overvoltage is simulated based on a lightning waveshape of 10/350 µs using the Heidler expression, whilst the Rusck model is used to simulate the lightning-induced overvoltage. Different lightning current amplitudes (3, 19, and 169 kA), lightning strike locations (20, 50, and 100 m), and cable lengths (5, 10, and 20 m) are used to investigate the induced effects on the system and on the impulse withstand voltage of 6kV, as stated in MS IEC 60664-1 for solar PV–battery systems and inverters at the DC side. The results indicate that as the lightning strike distance increases from 20 to 100 m, the percentage of strikes exceeding the impulse withstand voltage reduces from 67% to 54% at 19 kA. At 169 kA, the impulse withstand voltage is exceeded by more than 100%, regardless of the strike distance (from 20 to 100 m). Furthermore, differences in cable length do not have much impact on the lightning-induced overvoltage due to the small voltage drop across the short cable length. This study provides useful information for PV systems owners and will be useful in assigning appropriate lightning protection schemes for PV farms.

Renewable Energy (RE) penetration is a new phenomenon in power systems. In the advent of high penetration of RE in the systems, several issues have to be addressed especially when it involves the stability and flexibility of the power systems. Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) has gained popularity due to its capability to store energy and to serve multiple purposes in solving various power system concerns. Additionally, several BESS can be combined to operate as Virtual Power Plant (VPP). This study will involve the design and implementation of BESS for five potential customer sites for the demonstration project and to be possibly integrated into one VPP system. The study is expected to demonstrate bill savings to the customers with BESS due to peak demand reduction and energy arbitrage savings.Renewable Energy (RE) penetration is a new phenomenon in power systems. In the advent of high penetration of RE in the systems, several issues have to be addressed especially when it involves the stability and flexibility of the power systems. Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) has gained popularity due to its capability to store energy and to serve multiple purposes in solving various power system concerns. Additionally, several BESS can be combined to operate as Virtual Power Plant (VPP). This study will involve the design and implementation of BESS for five potential customer sites for the demonstration project and to be possibly integrated into one VPP system. The study is expected to demonstrate bill savings to the customers with BESS due to peak demand reduction and energy arbitrage savings.