KUALA LUMPUR, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's recently launched National Energy Efficiency Policy and Action Plan 2026-2035 (NEEAP 2.0) is expected to accelerate the adoption of energy-efficiency measures across industries, commercial buildings and households, with analysts seeing stronger opportunities for energy-efficiency solution providers as regulatory enforcement gains traction.
MBSB Research said in a recent note that NEEAP 2.0, together with the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act, creates a regulatory framework to systematically reduce energy consumption across factories, buildings and households.
Malaysia launched NEEAP 2.0 last week as part of its broader energy transition, shifting greater emphasis towards improving energy efficiency alongside expanding energy supply. The plan targets an 11.6 percent reduction in energy demand by 2035, underpinned by an estimated 36.6 billion ringgit (about 9.02 billion U.S. dollars) in investment across industrial, commercial and domestic users.
MBSB Research said about 9.1 billion ringgit of the estimated investment could be concentrated in industrial and commercial private-sector opportunities, spanning industrial utilities, high-efficiency motors, automation, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) and chillers, heat recovery, mechanical and electrical (M&E) retrofits and district cooling.
The much larger 26.9 billion ringgit domestic component is expected to be driven mainly by the adoption and replacement of household appliances with higher-efficiency models, which MBSB Research viewed as largely voluntary.
Kenanga Research also described NEEAP 2.0 as a structural catalyst for energy-efficiency adoption, with EECA enforcement expected to gradually shift spending towards compliance-driven investments.
While data centers are currently excluded from the specific commercial-building energy-audit program under NEEAP 2.0, it expects their high energy intensity to continue driving demand for integrated facilities and energy-management solutions, with scope for tighter efficiency requirements over time.
Hong Leong Investment Research also said that NEEAP 2.0 offered an attractive 2.33 times benefit-cost ratio, meaning projected energy-cost savings would exceed the investment cost. ■
