As Malaysia accelerates towards its renewable energy goals, Huawei Malaysia is calling for more stringent national standards and stronger enforcement mechanisms to ensure a safer energy transition as the country deploys more solar and battery storage systems.
Universiti Malaya and Huawei Malaysia recently co-hosted the Second Digital Think Tank Network Roundtable with the theme “Building Trust in Green Energy: Safety, Standards, and the Future.”
The session brought together regulators, academics, and industry experts to have a high-level discussion on the importance of having safety standards in Malaysia’s clean energy push.
Damon Leong, Huawei Malaysia Solutions Expert, started the session with a keynote titled “The Importance of Standards for Renewable Energy in Malaysia.” He stressed the critical need for strong safety standards to support Malaysia’s rapid renewal transition. He cited recent incidents involving battery energy storage systems (BESS) and photovoltaic (PV) fires as a wake-up call and pushed for urgency to establish a comprehensive Malaysian Standards (MS) for green technology.
Leong said Malaysia must enforce stricter import requirements and ensure that all renewable energy products undergo rigorous testing and validation against verified benchmarks. He proposed the establishment of a Malaysian Standards (MS) Committee comprising key stakeholders from academia, industry, government, manufacturers, testing labs, consumer groups and professional associations to oversee and advance local standards.
He added that, “Huawei’s design philosophy is always about safety. It is the baseline of everything that we do. Whatever happens to a product will not just cause the product to fail but may stop the whole industry from moving forward. At Huawei, we can never compromise safety for cost, and we remain fully committed to develop, and build better and safer products for the Malaysian industry.”
He emphasised that Huawei has established operations in Malaysia since 2001, is committed to continue to serve the market and help the industry.
The session also featured insights from a panel of domain experts across regulation, academia and governance. Ts Nurhafiza Mohd Hasan, Director of Safety Regulation at the Energy Commission (Suruhanjaya Tenaga), shared that the Commission has adopted and implemented nearly 200 IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) or MS (Malaysia Standard) standards through established Codes, Directives and Guidelines. She said these efforts aim to maintain safety and reliability of equipment and installations, to contribute to the delivery of a secure and reliable electricity supply.
She said with the rapid pace of technological development, maintaining strong and up-to-date standards is vital to ensure safety and compliance.
Professor Dr Jeyraj Selvaraj, Executive Director of Universiti Malaya’s Power and Energy Dedicated Advanced Centre, said Malaysia must triple its renewable energy capacity and double its energy efficiency by 2030 in order to meet Sustainable Development Goal 7. He warned that with the world on track to breach the 1.5°C threshold under the Paris Agreement by 2040, the progress depends on four key pillars: Solar, Bioenergy, Hydropower and innovative solutions.
Associate Professor Ir Dr Lim Boon Han from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) highlighted risks of photovoltaic (PV) systems such as electrical faults, lightning strikes, module quality, wind load and floods. These risks he said can lead to fires, electric shocks and damage to the PV system. He emphasised the importance of compliance to safety standards and guidelines, including Bomba’s 2024 release, to support effective emergency response.
Closing the panel, Pn Sujatha Sekhar Naik, Chairman of the Malaysian Institute of Corporate Governance shared insights on Stewardship and Sustainable Governance. She highlighted that the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG), introduced in 2000, serves as a foundation for improving corporate governance practices among companies.
Malaysia aims to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Huawei Malaysia says it will continue to work closely with regulators, academia and industry, leveraging on its technological expertise to advance a safe and sustainable green transition in Malaysia.
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Huawei Malaysia calls for robust national standards to ensure safety in renewable energy transition
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