KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia needs a clear public-private partnership (PPP) framework to attract private investment into nuclear power projects, given their high capital requirements and lengthy development timelines, said Cypark Resources Bhd chairman Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar.
He said the government should clarify the incentives and commitments it would provide under such a model, allowing the private sector to plan for the long-term development of nuclear projects.
“The earlier the government comes out with a PPP model, what sort of incentive or government commitment for that, it will become much clearer,” Wahid said during a panel discussion at the 7th International Sustainable Energy Summit 2026 (ISES 2026) today.
“The gestation period for nuclear is actually very, very long, not just for the conventional 1,000MW nuclear power, but also for the modular 300MW small modular reactors that we’re looking at,” he said.
Wahid said Malaysia also needed to diversify its energy mix rather than rely too heavily on solar, noting that nuclear could eventually provide baseload power alongside gas and hydro.
“If you talk about 58% out of the 70% renewable energy will come from solar, that’s probably not good enough in terms of diversification,” he said.
“So I think we do need a diversified source of renewable energy. For the baseload in particular, beyond gas that we’re using currently and hydro, so nuclear, to my mind, would be an eventuality,” he said.
On clean energy financing, Wahid said Malaysia did not face a shortage of capital for domestic renewable energy projects, with hydro and small hydro generally considered bankable.
The bigger challenge, he said, was making cross-border electricity projects commercially viable, particularly where several countries are involved in generation, transmission and power purchases.
He cited the Laos-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore electricity connectivity as an example, saying its viability would depend on whether the Singaporean off-taker was willing to pay a price that adequately compensated the producer and transmission providers.
Using Tenaga Nasional Bhd’s current wheeling charge as a benchmark, Wahid gave a back-of-the-envelope example of about US$0.25 per kilowatt-hour, comprising around US$0.10 per kWh for Laos’ hydropower, US$0.05 per kWh each for transmission through Thailand and Malaysia, and another US$0.05 per kWh for other costs.
“If Singapore, and the entity in Singapore, is a very good-rated entity, is prepared to pay 25 US cents per kilowatt-hour, then naturally it will be very bankable to my mind,” he said.
He said the example illustrated the need for clear commercial structures and pricing mechanisms to make cross-border clean energy projects bankable and attract financing.
