Crisis Of Energy Fuel In Malaysia

Introduction

Britannica defined energy as an ability of a body to do work as it exist in many forms from potential, kinetic, thermal, nuclear and other various form including electrical and chemical energy. The first law of thermodynamics clearly states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. For instance, the solar energy radiating the Earth’s surface is collected and used as thermal energy or harnessing it to produce electrical energy; electricity. Chemical energy, like gasoline, explode when ignited and the ignition force moves the piston in the engine to provide movement for the car; hence the changes of energy from chemical to mechanical.

As human evolved and developed, many research and studies has found its way to innovate ways and methods to harness these energy until fossil fuel usage becomes the conventional energy sources. Over the years, fossil fuel gave other sources of energy like coal, petroleum, natural gas and many more. These sources later became a prominent sources due to its high efficiency. However, many drawbacks are found and major drawback is it is depleted and once used up, there will be no more fossil fuel left to be used. Knowing this problem, the world is shifting towards greener energy by utilising nature sources such as solar, wind, tidal, wave and biomass; also known as renewable energy.

Non-Renewable and Renewable Energy

To explain further, non-renewable energy are called such because it cannot be recreated in a short period of time. Fossil fuel especially requires hundreds or thousands of years to be created as it is originally created by dead organisms that is buried under the Earth under lots of pressure. Renewable energy is the vice versa of non-renewable energy. The supplies of renewable energy can be replenish in a short amount of time. In other words, they are readily available and abundant. 

Energy sources in Malaysia

Electricity in Malaysia generally generated by fossil fuel. Energy commission states that electricity generation was supported by companies such as Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB), Syarikat SESCO Bhd (SESCO) and independent Power Producer (IPP) for both east and peninsular part of Malaysia by utilising both primary and secondary supply. Primary energy supply is unaltered energy source while secondary energy supply is energy source from derived primary source.

According to handbook by Energy Commission Malaysia, fuel input to power station are coal and coke, natural gas, hydropower, diesel, fuel oil, solar, biomass and biogas. From the source type, it can be indicated that Malaysia depends on thermal plant to produce electricity and indicated in figures below and the data is for year 2016. All the energy produced are consumed in residential, commercial, industrial, transportation and agriculture. 

Chong (2015) has concluded that Malaysia is a net energy exporter as crude oil and natural gas are the main exports while coal, coke and oil products are the main import. Lack of refineries is what made the oil products is majorly imported. The conclusion of his study is supported by data provided by Malaysia Energy Commission in the handbook although the data is only for year 2016. Bar graph below provides the percentage of import and export of the conventional energy source taken directly from the handbook.

Conventional energy crisis in Malaysia

Ali (2012) has stated that the major crisis for energy sector in Malaysia is that high dependency on fossil fuel (natural gas and coal) as throughout 1990 t0 2016, at least 90% pf energy in Peninsular Malaysia was provided by fossil fuel as 52% of coal is consumed in 2016 alone. However, the data for 2016 still indicates that Malaysia still heavily importing coal and coke. Then an article from The Asia Dialogue states that the major crisis of energy sector in Malaysia still ‘over-dependence on fossil fuel’ and ‘increasing energy import dependency.

This shows that the trend is not decreasing any soon even with government diversification of energy supply policy incorporating renewable energy sources – producing lower CO2 emission – into the energy mix. Furthermore, with the implementation of Clean Coal Technologies (CCT) to raise efficiency and reducing CO2, greener option for pollutant discharge and ash disposal, will increase the construction and operational cost that will can impact the electricity tariff (Ali et al., 2012). Moreover, high natural gas price becomes the reason why natural has is underutilised locally because exporting natural gas brings more profit.

Another problem is the challenge of maintaining the power plant to operate at the highest efficiency and reliability level while developing renewable sources power plant to ensure economical supply to the end-user through steadfast supply and reasonably priced tariff.

Hydropower is the second major common energy source that is renewable and clean. But, building more hydropower plant will disturb the ecosystem and give social impact. For instance, Bakun Dam construction require relocation of indigenous people with total area destruction on 69640 ha, damaging both flora and fauna and its unique ecological feature (Ali et al., 2012).

Future energy of Malaysia

Over-dependency on fossil fuel may expose Malaysia’s energy security to electrical disruptions if anything ever goes sideways. To mitigate this problem, government need to come out with a decent energy policy to ensure diversification of energy supply while reducing carbon emission and enhancing energy efficiency of the consumers.

Eleventh Malaysia Plan (11MP) aims to reduce dependency on fossil fuel by diversifying fuel source from renewable and non-renewable sources. Moving towards a sustainable future, clean energy such as solar, wind, biomass or wave must be introduced. 

Based on the data, it seems that solar is a viable option. However, lacks of expertise is a major limitation. Resorting to biomass as a new usable fuel would reduce the dependency on fossil fuel, especially coal. Biomass is the most promising option as it is abundance from various crops of mass agriculture such as rubber, oil palm, rice, cocoa, coconut and forestry wood in which all of these sources are home-grown.

All of these abundant source can be utilised as highlighted by Mariun (2011) as (1) use cheaper biomass fuel instead of fossil fuel like using biomass fuel instead of oil to fuel up the boiler; (2) connecting factory’s electricity generator to national grid so the excess electricity can be sold.

It would seem viable to impose biomass as the new alternating fuel source as a study by Zakaria (2019) on public awareness conclude that the public is adequately aware about renewable energy. Given the opportunity, most of the respondent prefer to change to renewable energy but the cost is not economical for them.

It can be concluded that biomass is a practicable source as alternative instead of heavily dependent on fossil fuel. Since it is not practicable to build biomass power plant, alternative such as addition fuel to existing coal generated power plant can be imposed. Implementing incentive for selling excess electricity will make mills such as palm oil mill to utilise its biomass waste without worry of excess electricity. Utilising waste biomass helps to reduce disposal problems all while converting those waste to wealth towards a brighter and cleaner future.

References

• Ali, R., Daut, I., & Taib, S. (2012). A review on existing and future energy sources for electrical power generation in Malaysia. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 16(6), 4047–4055. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2012.03.003
• Britannica, T. E. of E. (n.d.). Energy. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/science/energy.
• Bujang, A. S., Bern, C. J., & Brumm, T. J. (2016). Summary of energy demand and renewable energy policies in Malaysia. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 53, 1459–1467. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.09.047
• Chala, G. T., Guangul, F. M., & Sharma, R. (2019). Biomass Energy in Malaysia-A SWOT Analysis. 2019 IEEE Jordan International Joint Conference on Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, JEEIT 2019 - Proceedings, 401–406. https://doi.org/10.1109/JEEIT.2019.8717475
• Chong, C., Ni, W., Ma, L., Liu, P., & Li, Z. (2015). The use of energy in Malaysia: Tracing energy flows from primary source to end use. Energies, 8(4), 2828–2866. https://doi.org/10.3390/en8042828
• Energy Commission (Malaysia). (2017). Energy Malaysia. Suruhanjaya Tenaga, 12. Retrieved from www.st.gov.my
• Energy Resources : Primary vs . Secondary Resources. (2019). Retrieved from The University of Texas website: https://www.watt-watchers.com/2018/12/31/energy-resources-primary-vs-secondary/
• Introduction to Energy. (2013). Secondary Energy Infobook, 6–9. Retrieved from www.NEED.org
• Malaysia Energy Statistics 2018. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.st.gov.my/contents/files/download/116/MES_2018_Handbook_FINAL.PDF
• Mariun, N. (2011). Energy Crisis 2050? Global Scenario and Way Forward for Malaysia. Retrieved from http://www.penerbit.upm.edu.my
• Rachna, C. (2019). Difference Between Renewable and Non- Renewable Resources. Retrieved from https://biodifferences.com/difference-between-renewable-and-non-renewable-resources.html
• Saleh Shadman, Christina Chin M. M., N. S. (2018). Energy Security in Malaysia: Current adn future scenarios. Retrieved from Asia Dialogue website: https://theasiadialogue.com/2018/12/11/energy-security-in-malaysia-current-and-future-scenarios/
• Shafie, S. M., Mahlia, T. M. I., Masjuki, H. H., & Andriyana, A. (2011). Current energy usage and sustainable energy in Malaysia: A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 15(9), 4370–4377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2011.07.113
• Zakaria, S. U., Basri, S., Kamarudin, S. K., & Majid, N. A. A. (2019). Public Awareness Analysis on Renewable Energy in Malaysia. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 268(1). https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/268/1/012105