This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on September 21, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Collaborations between the power utilities and telecommunications companies (telcos) “makes sense” as it is a perfect way to optimise asset utilisation, according to a former energy sector regulator.

Former chairman of the Energy Commission of Malaysia Datuk Abdul Razak Abdul Majid said it would reduce the amount of way leave — a right of way granted by a landowner in exchange for payment — that is required for telephone lines and power lines.

“This would allow sharing of a common way leave. I think it is a perfect synergy if the operational needs of both [the power utility and telcos] are met.

“It would be best if both the power utility and telcos can reach an agreement at the planning stage, for example to plan that [a certain] line would carry both power and telecommunications facility, that would be the best thing to do and it would avoid congestion,” Abdul Razak who now chiars the non-governmental organisation Energy Council of Malaysia, told reporters at the 22nd Conference of Electric Power Supply Industry (Cepsi 2018) yesterday.

Manila Electric Co (Meralco) chief technology adviser Gavin D Barfield, who was also at the news conference, concurred, saying that the collaboration would be synergistic for both power utility and telecommunications sector.

“There are clearly synergies in the physical installation of cables, but where the challenges or the arguments are going to be, is, for example when it comes to who is the entity that owns the home [that the services are provided to].

“The telcos will tell you they own the home as they provide the broadband, they provide the communication, [so] they want to get into this additional home services that they are offering [via] smart home services and all of these things.

“The utility will tell you that without our power supplied, none of this stuff is going to work. So there is an interesting dynamic to how this is all going to play out. Globally, smart home and smart cities fall under the business plans of most telco, and most [power] utility as well, so it would be interesting to see if they can both play in the same market, join up, compete, or if one entity will be dominant,” he said.

Meralco is the largest private sector electric distribution utility company in the Philippines, covering 36 cities and 75 municipalities, including Metro Manila. It serves 6.5 million customers.

Meanwhile, Abdul Razak commended the government’s move to allow Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) to kick-start its pilot broadband project in Melaka, as part of the National Connectivity Plan.

“I think it’s a positive move for the government to allow TNB to kick-start the project and optimise the facility they are going to have in Melaka,” he said.