OUR SERVICES

In 2001, the company invested in the distribution of solar powered garden lights manufactured in Malaysia. This was our first venture in the solar PV industry.  The technology was simple, solar stand-alone technology consisting of a 2-watt solar cell, a lithium-ion rechargeable battery and LED. As the solar garden lights were of high quality, there was demand from the international market and from domestic consumers who were educated abroad.  When solar garden lights manufactured in China penetrated the Malaysian market and sold at a fraction of the locally manufactured lights, we decided to exit the market as it would be futile to compete.  The solar garden lights imported from China were of low quality and were not durable.  As a result, the consumers lost trust in the product and this decimated the solar-powered garden light market in Malaysia.

Resolute on its path to energy conservation, the company acquired technology to design and construct solar-powered street lighting. Coincidentally, the Public Works Department was looking for alternatives to the conventional street lighting that require high cost of investments for cabling works from the nearest grid supply to the ‘high accidents location’ at roads and junctions.  The company supplied and constructed solar-powered street lighting to many new rural roads such as the Batang Kali to Universiti Selangor (UNISEL) at Bestari Jaya in Selangor, Baling, Kedah to Gerik, Perak highway, Pulau Pasir Hitam, Perak – a fishing island and many others.  Battery theft is averted by placing it in a locked box, 10 feet above the ground instead of placing it at the base of the pole as in some imported models.  The solar street lighting system was designed with three days autonomy that takes into consideration any intermittent cloudy and rainy weather.

The Public Works Department acknowledged Gading Kencana’s expertise in solar-powered lighting by assigning the company to design and construct solar PV systems to power the lights and fans for Rest & Recreational (R&R) areas along the Simpang Pulai-Gua Musang road, the Raub-Bukit Fraser road and the road leading to an Orang Asli new village in Cameron Highlands.

Teachers assigned to rural schools are often reluctant to be posted to remote settlements in Sabah and Sarawak as electricity supply is limited to several hours in a day. In 2009, the Ministry of Education called for proposals from suppliers to provide solar-powered systems that can deliver 24-hours electricity. The company successfully bade for the project. This marked the beginning of Gading Kencana’s involvement in large scale solar PV off-grid projects.

Battery storage is necessitated when generating power where the utility grid is not available to receive excess generation from solar PV systems or to supplement inadequate generation, or non-existent generation during the night.  The cost to meet the load demand for 24-hour users can be exorbitant as more solar PV panels and a large battery bank are required. To mitigate costs, a solar hybrid with diesel generator systems were designed.  However, a balance between the operation hours of the diesel generators to generate electricity and the solar panels have to be taken into consideration. This is due to expensive diesel costs when transported to remote areas in the interior.

Additionally, solar hybrid systems utilising diesel generators require team members who are familiar with maintenance of diesel generator sets and automation systems to self-start the diesel generator when battery storage levels run low.

The challenging terrain and hazardous routes to the rural schools posed a major factor for costing purposes. Some sites require both land and river transport.  There are locations that can only be accessible by 4-wheel drive vehicles.  Project delays due to rough weather have to be factored in. The work in the jungle is challenging and dangerous.

Therefore, it was really a situation of ‘when the going gets tough, the tough gets going’.  It is to be noted that as owners and top management, our senior executives had to Walk the Talk and demonstrate exemplary leadership qualities by participation. We had to experience what the employees were going through to understand their situation and gain their respect.

Thus, amongst industry players Gading Kencana is distinguished as an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) solar company that had successfully executed large scale remote location solar hybrid systems.  We are acknowledged as a company to be reckoned with.

When the Malaysian government enacted the Renewable Energy Act 2011 – where the Feed-in Tariff was enforced, competition among EPC solar contractors was intense.  From a handful of companies, the industry players multiplied into a few hundreds.  As such, Gading Kencana’s management took a bold step of venturing beyond EPC, to that of a solar farm developer. In 2012, the company embarked on a new phase of the solar PV industry – the development of a large scale solar farm.

Solar farm development is a convergence of knowledge and skills of civil project development, development financing, grid transmission and connection as well as solar PV engineering.  Unlike our previous solar projects, the process to obtain the Development Order from the Local Authorities as well as obtain financing from financial institutions could take up almost 12 months.  A bigger team of specialists mainly the Planner, Architect, Civil, Mechanical and Electrical Engineers, the Quantity Surveyor and Land Surveyor have to collaborate to draw designs and layout. The bank would only begin to process our loan application after the award of a Development Order. This is where effective stakeholder management and networking skills play a crucial role to ensure smooth running of a project.

The company’s first solar farm at Air Keroh, Melaka was a training ground for our team.  With a small capacity of 8 MW quota and minimal risks the team charged on learning as we progressed and asking questions from whomever was willing to teach.  Credit must be given to the company’s young team who were resolved not to assign the project to foreign-based consultants and contractors.

The successful completion of our 8MW solar farm in Melaka emboldened the company to bid for a bigger quota in 2016.  The company won a quota for 37.5MW in Bidor, Perak, outbidding several public-listed companies. We had learnt valuable lessons from our Melaka experience and this gave Gading Kencana the edge.

Given our success in Melaka, the team wanted to build a reputation so as to bid for international projects that were under negotiations. The Bidor solar farm, unlike the one in Melaka, was developed on tin-mining wasteland and generated much interest from the local communities.  A local news network recorded a special documentary film titled ‘Bidor: Dari Jambu batu ke Ladang Solar’ (Bidor: from Guava to Solar farm). Many locals from and around Bidor were employed in the construction.  Local caterers provided food and drinks to the construction team.  The local population was hired for cleaning, landscape design and maintenance as well as security services. Many ‘Bidor parents’ were proud that their children were employed by the solar farm.

Solar farm maintenance, as is with international practice, is monitored remotely from a control centre.  The personnel on-site carry out physical maintenance such as cleaning of building, landscape maintenance and checks on the system as instructed from the control centre. With thousands of solar panels, electrical and electronic cables kilometres in length, transformers and countless other instrumentation, monitoring devices are necessary to identify problematic spots within a few seconds. IT personnel with electrical engineering and electronic communications as well as monitoring background are essential for this job.  Real time controller software for data collection and transmission to Data or Control centre such as NI LabVIEW real-time and SCADA are among the knowledge and skills required.

What next for the company?  After the 21 years contract/life of the solar farms, the company will have a large land bank in hand.  A strategic corporate move would be to venture into commercial property development or a solar components recycling centre.