Gentari is having a rather busy week over at the ongoing Energy Asia conference at KL Convention Centre which is being hosted by its parent company, Petronas. In addition to activating its EV roaming with ChargEV and JomCharge, the green energy outfit has also signed new agreements with Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) and SEDC Energy.
Depending on respective partners, these Strategic Collaboration Agreements (SCAs) cover multiple fronts. With SEB, Gentari will be working on energy mix diversification through renewable energy projects while SEDC Energy’s partnership revolves around the production of green hydrogen.
Another provision that is also covered by these SCAs is electric vehicle charging facilities which involves both SEB and SEDC Energy. According to the joint announcement, Gentari will be working with both of the state-owned companies to develop the EV charging network in Sarawak.
While Malaysia’s EV charging infrastructure is still lacking in general, the situation in East Malaysia is much more dire. Out of the 1000+ public EV chargers that are available throughout Malaysia at the moment, less than 30 of them are in Sarawak and most of the chargers were deployed in Kuching according to the listings on PlugShare.
In fact, all three DC fast chargers in the state are only available in Kuching. Given the sheer size of the state, this makes inter-district travel highly challenging, if not downright impossible.
Just imagine: the distance between Kuching and Sibu is already more than 300km. Hence, this partnership between Gentari, SEB, and SEDC Energy is a huge step forward for the development of EV charging infrastructure in the state.
That being said, neither of the parties has provided any specific details regarding the charging network though. So, it is still a long way to go before you can travel throughout Sarawak on an EV without experiencing range anxiety.
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