Every rooftop solar quote circulating in Malaysia before 2026 was priced against a scheme that no longer exists. Net Energy Metering closed at the end of June 2025. In its place, since 1 January 2026, sits Solar ATAP.
The name is an acronym stacked on a pun: Solar Accelerated Transition Action Programme, and atap means roof. The mechanics are close enough to NEM that installers still describe it as "the same thing." It isn't, in three ways that matter to a household.
What Solar ATAP Actually Is
Solar ATAP is a government programme that lets you install solar panels on your roof, use the electricity yourself, and export whatever you don't use back to the grid as an offset against your bill.
The Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) describes it as a continuation of NEM, with adjustments meant to make it more attractive than the older Solar for Self-Consumption scheme, where surplus energy simply went to waste.
Three agencies sit behind it. The Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (PETRA) runs the programme, the Energy Commission regulates it, and SEDA is the implementing agency that processes applications.
It applies to Tenaga Nasional Berhad customers, which in practice means Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak runs its own separate net energy metering scheme through Sarawak Energy, with its own rules and its own forms.
Who Can Apply, and Who Is Excluded
The eligibility list is short but it disqualifies more people than most households expect.
You must be a registered TNB consumer. You must not already be signed up under the Self-Consumption (SelCo) or Net Energy Metering programmes — existing participants cannot migrate across.
The exclusion that catches renters and condo dwellers: any TNB account registered under a tenant sub-meter in a multi-tenant scheme is not eligible. Neither is any consumer who is also a generator, such as a co-generator or a back-feed arrangement.
That leaves landed homes and individually metered premises. If your electricity bill comes to you via a management office rather than directly from TNB, Solar ATAP is not open to you, regardless of what the roof looks like.
The Size Cap and the RM1,000 Study
This is the number that quietly caps your savings, and it rarely appears on the first page of a quotation.
For domestic consumers, SEDA sets the installed capacity limit at 5 kW for single-phase supply and 15 kW for three-phase. Most Malaysian terrace houses are single phase.
Go above those thresholds and TNB requires a Connection Confirmation Check before your application is even submitted. That study costs RM1,000, paid by you, and it is not a formality — it establishes whether the connection is technically feasible at all.
Non-domestic consumers get more room: up to 100 per cent of maximum demand, capped at 1,000 kW.
The practical read for a household is simple. Size the system to your actual consumption, not to your roof area.
What "Offset" Actually Means on Your TNB Bill
Under Solar ATAP the excess energy you export is credited as an energy offset. SEDA's own wording is precise on this point: the programme allows excess solar energy to be exported back to the grid at a set energy offset rate.
An offset is not a payment. TNB does not send you money. The credit reduces a line on your bill.
Which line matters, because a Malaysian electricity bill is not a single number. If you have never actually read yours, start there before you read any solar quotation — we broke down what each line on a TNB bill decides separately, and the exercise takes ten minutes.
The honest way to evaluate a payback claim: ask the installer which charge component the offset reduces, and ask them to show it against your last three bills rather than a generic model. Households that use most of their power at night will offset far less than the brochure assumes, because the panels produce during the day.
Cash, Loan, Lease or PPA
There are three ways to end up with panels on the roof, and they are not equivalent.
Outright purchase. You pay cash, take a personal loan, or put it on a credit card. You own the system. You also own the maintenance and the performance risk once the manufacturer warranty runs out.
Solar leasing. You pay a fixed monthly amount to use the system. The investor handles maintenance and performance. Ownership transfers to you when the lease ends.
Power purchase agreement. You pay per kilowatt-hour for the solar energy the system generates. The Registered Solar PV Investor owns the system throughout. Zero upfront capital, longer payback.
Lease and PPA arrangements can be billed two ways. A direct contract is between you and the investor. Under SARE, it is a tripartite arrangement where collection runs through your TNB bill — and TNB charges a 2 sen/kWh service fee for that convenience.
One line in SEDA's own material deserves attention before signing anything under SARE: non-payment of the outstanding amount means TNB may disconnect the power supply under Section 29 of the Electricity Supply Act. Your solar payment and your electricity supply become the same obligation.
The Ten-Year Cliff Nobody Advertises
The Solar ATAP contract runs for ten years from commencement.
After that, SEDA states it plainly: the solar PV installation shall be strictly for self-consumption at the premises, and no offset and no roll-over will be allowed for any excess energy exported.
Panels typically carry performance warranties well past a decade. So in year eleven your system keeps producing, keeps cutting your daytime consumption, and stops earning anything at all for what it sends to the grid.
That does not make Solar ATAP a bad deal. It makes the payback maths sensitive to how much of your own generation you actually consume on site, rather than how much you export. Battery storage, load-shifting your washing machine and water heater to daylight hours, and simply sizing conservatively all matter more under a ten-year offset window than they did under an open-ended one.
If you are also weighing an EV, the daytime-consumption picture changes again — home charging is one of the few loads you can genuinely move into the sunshine, and our guide to EV charging costs and apps in Malaysia covers what that draws.
You also do not apply directly. Applications go through SEDA's online eATAP system and must be submitted by a SEDA-Registered PV Service Provider appointed by you. SEDA maintains public directories of registered service providers and investors — check any company against those lists before you sign.
The submission only happens after installation is fully completed and commissioned, meaning the panels go up before the contract is finalised. Incomplete document packs get returned, TNB then schedules the meter replacement, and the offset only starts appearing after interconnection.
FAQ
Is Solar ATAP the same as NEM 3.0?
No. NEM concluded at the end of June 2025 and Solar ATAP began on 1 January 2026. SEDA calls it a continuation of NEM's core principles, but the contract, the tenure and the offset arrangement are set under the new programme, and existing NEM participants are not eligible to apply.
How much can a Malaysian home install under Solar ATAP?
Domestic consumers are capped at 5 kW on single-phase supply and 15 kW on three-phase. Anything above those thresholds requires a Connection Confirmation Check from TNB at a cost of RM1,000 before the application is submitted.
Can I apply if I live in a condo or a rented unit?
Generally no. TNB accounts registered under tenant sub-meters in a multi-tenant scheme are excluded, as are consumers who already operate their own generation. The applicant must be the registered TNB consumer for the premises.
Do I get paid for the electricity I export?
Not in cash. Exported energy is credited as an offset against your electricity bill at the set energy offset rate. The credit reduces what you owe rather than generating income.
What happens after the ten-year contract ends?
The installation continues to work but reverts to strict self-consumption. SEDA states that no offset and no roll-over will be allowed for excess energy exported after the ten-year tenure.
Does Solar ATAP apply in Sabah and Sarawak?
Solar ATAP is a TNB-linked programme covering Peninsular Malaysia. Sarawak Energy operates its own separate Net Energy Metering scheme with different terms.
Sources worth reading in full before you commit: SEDA's official Solar ATAP programme page, which carries the guidelines, contract templates and service provider directories; SEDA's NEM page for the scheme it replaced; and Sarawak Energy's Net Energy Metering scheme if you are east of the South China Sea.
One last piece of context on why any of this is moving. Malaysia's electricity demand is not flat — the data centre build-out alone reaches your bill in ways that have nothing to do with your own switches. Rooftop solar is one of the few levers a household actually holds.
