Malaysian multinational utility company Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) has launched a 100MW/400MWh battery storage project with an opening ceremony.
TNB, which serves more than 11 million customers across Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Labuan, held the event yesterday (18 May) to celebrate the commissioning of the Santong battery energy storage system (BESS).
The opening ceremony was attended by dignitaries, including Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy Transition and Water Transformation, Amar Fadillah Yusof.
The project, equipped with grid-forming (GFM) inverters, aims to strengthen and increase the stability of electricity supply on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia and support the integration of renewable energy to the grid in line with the goals of the National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR).
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The NETR aims to increase renewable energy capacity to 70% by 2050, equivalent to the development of an additional 14GW of renewables capacity. The national plan also calls for 500MW of BESS deployments by 2030 and continued growth thereafter.
Santong BESS has been connected at the 132/33kV Santong BESS Main Input Substation in Dungun District, in the state of Terengganu, about 360km northeast of the national capital Kuala Lumpur.
TNB CEO Shamsul bin Ahmad said the liquid-cooled BESS will play an important role in ensuring grid system stability through responding quickly to supply-demand imbalances. Its applications will include supporting peak load management and enabling larger-scale integration of solar to the grid with its GFM capabilities.
“Through this capability, BESS Santong can balance fluctuations in electricity supply and demand in real time, especially during peak hours or system disruptions, thus reducing pressure on the grid and improving the stability of electricity supply,” the CEO said.
In addition to its role as energy supplier, with 3.3GW of generation capacity including 2.5GW of large-scale hydroelectric power in Peninsular Malaysia, TNB also serves as transmission and distribution (T&D) operator in those three Malaysian territories. CEO Shamsul bin Ahmad said the Santong BESS can support “the electricity needs of approximately 40,000 households around the East Coast, depending on current usage patterns.”
Overseas, the company also operates in eight other countries, including a 1.3GW renewable energy portfolio in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and Turkiye.
Malaysia’s first wave of grid-connected BESS projects
While TNB described Santong BESS as the first grid-scale battery project to connect to the grid in Malaysia in its announcement, it is thought to be the first to connect to the main grid of Peninsular Malaysia.
The country’s first claimed grid-connected BESS was inaugurated in late 2025 in Sabah, one of the Malaysian states on the island of Borneo. BESS Lahad Datu, also 100MW/400MWh, became Southeast Asia’s largest BESS in MWh terms when officially opened in December last year.
Meanwhile, the country’s inaugural competitive solicitation, Malaysia Battery Energy Storage System (MyBeST), launched in November 2024, seeks four grid-connected projects, each of 100MW/400MWh, for an aggregate of 400MW/1,600MWh, to be commissioned in 2027. Bidders were shortlisted by the national energy commission, Suruhanjaya Tenaga (ST), at the end of 2025, with four selected from a field of 28 applicants.
Energy-Storage.news publisher Solar Media (part of the Informa Group) will host the Energy Storage Summit Asia 2026 on 1-3 July at QSNCC, Bangkok, Thailand. The conference takes place during ASIA Sustainable Energy Week 2026 (ASEW), the region’s most influential platform for driving clean energy. For more information, visit the official website.
