Electricity Bill Hike: Government Urged to Expand Solar Energy Adoption – Akmal Saleh

SHAH ALAM: The government should help more households switch to solar energy to enable them to reduce their electricity bills over the long term.

Merlimau State Assemblyman and UMNO Youth Chief Datuk Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh welcomed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s announcement that the government would review mitigation measures to ease the burden on the public following the recent increase in electricity bills.

“However, the people need an effective long-term solution.

“Therefore, we are proposing two measures — government incentives and rebates,” he said in a Facebook post on Thursday.

The media previously reported that a special meeting would be held to review immediate mitigation measures following public concerns over recent increases in electricity bills, partly driven by higher electricity consumption due to haze and hot weather.

According to Anwar, the meeting would involve the Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation, Energy Commission, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and Ministry of Finance (MOF).

Elaborating, Muhamad Akmal said incentives should be provided to companies in the solar industry to encourage more service providers to offer installation services.

He said healthy competition could help drive down prices and make solar installations more affordable.

“In addition, the government should provide rebates to households that install solar systems. These rebates could reduce the upfront installation costs, which are often the main barrier preventing people from adopting solar energy.

“If the government continues to rely on financial assistance to offset rising electricity generation costs, the country’s financial burden could increase whenever fuel prices rise.

“Investing in helping people adopt solar energy, on the other hand, has the potential to reduce households’ dependence on grid electricity in the long term,” he said.

Muhamad Akmal said the time had come for the government to make solar energy an affordable and accessible option for the public.

“Ease their electricity bills today and give them a way to save on electricity costs in the future,” he said.

Sinar Harian