Planning for Malaysia ’ s Future Energy Demand – ENERGY WATCH
According to current projections , Malaysia ’ s electricity demand is expected to grow from 18,808MW in 2020 to 24,050MW by 2039 . On a wider scale , due to a combination of global population growth and the economic growth of developing countries , the total energy consumption of the world is also expected to increase by a whopping 48 % by 2040 , according to the US Energy Information Administration ( EIA ).
Scaling up and building new energy generation and distribution systems to meet this demand is a gargantuan task on its own . Factoring in the ever-growing urgency to mitigate the effects of climate change makes this task exponentially more complicated . It requires a delicate balance of integrating renewable energy , retiring fossil-fuel based generation plants and reducing projected energy demands . Of these three factors needed to ensure the country ’ s energy security over the next few decades , reducing the projected energy demands and strain on Malaysia ’ s energy generation system is by far the most efficient and cost-effective option available .
Importance and Impact of Reducing Malaysia ’ s Energy Demand According to a March 2021 report from Malaysia ’ s energy authority , Suruhanjaya Tenaga , the country ’ s expected net energy demand of 24,050MW in 2039 can be reduced by almost 10,00MW to 23,093MW just by integrating demand-side renewable energy resources at the distribution network . Demand-side resources are components that exist in the energy ecosystem that can offload some of the expected strain on the country ’ s central energy grid . These resources can be split into two main categories :
● Behind-the-Meter sources : Components on end users ’ side that reduce energy demand such as energy efficiency ( EE ) technologies and self-consumption resources like rooftop solar .
● Distributed Generation ( DG ): Renewable energy sources that are connected at the energy distribution network , offloading the strain on central energy generators in the grid . This includes resources such as biomass , biogas , mini hydro , and waste-toenergy .
The resilience of Malaysia ’ s energy system is invisible to most and taken for granted as the country has an average electricity disruption of less than 50 minutes a year . This is the lowest amongst the ASEAN region and comparable even to advanced economies such as Denmark , France and the UK .
Maintaining this resiliency , while managing the energy trilemma to ensure that energy is reliably available for a growing and technologically evolving population , while attempting to transition energy systems to reach emission targets , is challenging to say the least . The potential benefits then , of reducing the projected demand on the country ’ s energy system by almost 10,00MW , are substantial .
In terms of monetary costs , reduced demand would lessen the investment needed to scale up energy systems and distribution grids . Lessening the strain on energy systems will reduce the risk on the security of energy supply and ultimately , a lower energy consumption will result in less harmful emissions to the environment .
Across the board , reduced energy demand helps mitigate the challenges of providing reliable , affordable , and cleaner electricity to the population .
The race to scale up Green Hydrogen – Financial Times
The German energy company , ITM Power , has , over the past 20 years , created an international name for itself in the clean energy industry and has grabbed the attention of Governments from Germany to Japan . Its new £ 22m factory — the size of two football pitches — manufactures electrolyser equipment that can use renewable power to produce hydrogen from water .
Green hydrogen is made by using clean electricity from renewable energy technologies to electrolyse water ( H 2
O ), separating the hydrogen atom within it from its molecular twin oxygen . This is currently very expensive .
Blue hydrogen is produced using natural gas but with carbon emissions being captured
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