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Electricity/Power Grid

Myanmar Energy Analysts Alarmed at Floating Power Plant Plans for Yangon

24 September 2019

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Myanmar

Yangon – Industry experts have criticized the Ministry of Electricity and Energy’s plan to produce electricity with gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) via a floating power plant to meet the rising demand in Yangon by mid-2020.

The ministry invited international bids in June for the 1,040-megawatt (MW) project.

U Aye Kyaw Kyaw, secretary of Yangon Region’s Electricity Development Management Committee, said: “They are emergency projects to meet electricity demand. As the projects will only last for five years, it is a short-term plan. The costs will be high. Although production of 400MW is viewed as a large-scale project in our country, it is small by international standards.”

According to its plan, the ministry will buy LNG on the international market for the floating power plant, which will send electricity through a cable to the power grid. Distribution will be based at the jetties nearest to existing power generation infrastructure.

The ministry has invited production bids of 20MW in Kyun Chaung in Irrawaddy Region and 120MW in Ahlone Township in Yangon Region with natural gas. Bids for production with LNG of 150MW in Kyaukphyu Township in Rakhine State, 350MW in Thanlyin Township and 400MW in Thaketa Township in Yangon Region are being invited.

“My biggest concern is that the state budget will be wasted,” said managing director U Lin Tun of Quasar Resources LLC, a US-based company developing energy infrastructure in Myanmar.

“I heard that one unit of energy produced with LNG will cost 12 or 13 cents [145-199 kyats]. There are many cheaper options. For example, a unit of solar power will only cost 7 or 8 cents. This is 40 percent cheaper, and it can be installed and operated more quickly,” he told The Irrawaddy.

“Solar is not perfect. Solar power can’t be generated at night, unlike LNG. But there will be a big gap in total production cost. It is simple. Use solar power as much as possible, and generate electricity with LNG in the rainy season and at night. Then, the annual cost will be around US$1 billion lower on average,” added U Lin Tun.

There are questions about whether the Yangon River is deep enough for a floating power station to navigate. Industry experts said the electricity ministry’s tender regulations that the required infrastructure must be built with 210 days after selection of a winner is unrealistic because it takes around two years on average to build the infrastructure.

Of more than 10 million households in Myanmar, only 4 million or 38.5 percent have access to the national grid, and annual demand has increased by 15 percent over the past few years, according to the Electricity Ministry.

The ministry estimates that Myanmar will need around 6 gigawatts (GW) in 2020-21, while the current production is 3GW.

While the electricity demand of Yangon Region is 1.6GW, the ministry can only supply less than 1.4GW.

There have also been questions about the accountability and transparency of the tender process due to corruption scandals surrounding the ministry.

Private power supplier U Myint Zaw criticized the lack of transparency because the ministry, despite having no previous experience of generating electricity with LNG, invited tenders without consulting with an international consultancy firm.

“Overseas there are no restrictions on investors in such cases. But these tender regulations suggest that they are designed with a specific individual in mind. They are above the electricity law,” he told The Irrawaddy.

U Myint Zaw filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Commission over the Electricity Ministry’s alleged corruption in tender selection for the supply of electricity meter boxes.

The commission said on Sunday that it was investigating the ministry over complaints about the Yeywa hydropower plant.

The commission probed corruption allegations about the electricity minister and deputy minister in July and asked the Central Bank of Myanmar to check their bank accounts and those of their wives.

Energy Policy

Yeo: Govt drawing up new cross-border pollution law

24 September 2019

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Malaysia

SERI ISKANDAR: The Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment Ministry is in the midst of drawing up a new law to hold Malaysian companies and individuals accountable for causing pollution in foreign countries.

Its minister Yeo Bee Yin said a policy for the Cross Border Pollution Act is being prepared and would be presented to the cabinet for approval.

“Once approved, a draft will be prepared. It usually takes months, sometimes years to bring a new law into effect. The ministry has contacted the Attorney General’s Chambers on the urgency of the matter.

“The law will enable the government to take action against Malaysian companies or individuals who commit haze- or pollution-related offences outside the country,” she told reporters after launching the Science, Engineering Technology and Mathematic (STEM) Exploration Centre at Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) here today. Also present was UTP vice-chancellor Prof Dr Mohamed Ibrahim Abdul Mutalib.

Commenting on the haze issue, Yeo said her ministry believed the situation would improve by end of this week, based on the report by the Malaysia Meteorological Department.

“With the monsoon transition, we will experience thunderstorms and showers nationwide, bringing a much needed respite from the haze,” she added.

On a related issue, Yeo said the Indonesian government have yet to respond to offers from Malaysia and Singapore to handle the haze crisis.

To a call by MCA for her resignation following allegations that her husband owns an oil palm plantation company in Indonesia that was responsible for the haze in the republic, Yeo said if it was found to be true, it was best for the Indonesian authority to take action.

“I believe the Indonesian government, upon completing their investigation, can take legal action on those found responsible, according to their laws.

“As a Malaysian minister, I hope the opposition will be able to give better suggestions to help us handle this issue (haze) more effectively in future. This is not a new issue. It has been going on for many years. I welcome any constructive suggestions, whether from th

Energy-Climate & Environment

To mitigate climate change, UN member states must redouble efforts: PM Lee

24 September 2019

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Singapore

NEW YORK: Member states of the United Nations need to redouble their efforts to mitigate climate change, said Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday (Sep 23), calling climate change the “ultimate global commons challenge”.

“As leaders, we all have the responsibility to do our part to rally our people’s support for sustainable development; to convince and educate our people that these efforts are important, and to safeguard our future, and the futures of our children and grandchildren,” Mr Lee said.

Mr Lee was speaking at the UN secretary-general’s Climate Action Summit – where governments shared plans and examples of how they are cutting emissions and boosting resilience to the impact of climate change.

He is in New York on a week-long working visit where he is to meet US President Donald Trump and will receive the 2019 World Statesman Award.

READ: PM Lee to meet President Trump, deliver speech at United Nations during visit to New York

“The consequences of climate change are catastrophic and affect all countries. New diseases, more extreme weather events, food shortages, forced migration and even wars,” Mr Lee said.

Mr Lee said Singapore will not be able to stop climate change on its own, however hard the country tries.

As such, Singapore is cooperating with other countries through initiatives such as the Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Insurance Facility, with the support of Japan and the World Bank.

The facility provides flood risk-pooling for the region, and the risk pool is meant to provide immediate liquidity to cover emergency response costs in the aftermath of regional catastrophes.

Singapore has also contributed S$5 million to the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre, based in Singapore, for a five-year regional capacity development programme for Southeast Asia.

The programme aims share technical knowledge and skills in weather and climate prediction, to help the region better adapt its policies to climate change.

Apart from these steps, Singapore has also played its part by switching to a cleaner fuel mix, and deploying cleaner energy solutions, Mr Lee said.

For instance, Singapore has implemented a carbon tax set at a rate of S$5 per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions from 2019 to 2023.

The country will review the carbon tax rate by 2023, with plans to increase it to between S$10 and S$15 per tonne of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

READ: NDR 2019: Climate change one of the ‘gravest challenges facing mankind’, impact on Singapore to worsen, says PM Lee

The country is also installing large-scale solar panels that float in its reservoirs and off its shores.

“Being small and highly urbanised, we are disadvantaged in terms of alternative energy, but we are developing creative solutions within our constraints,” Mr Lee said.

Mr Lee’s comments at the summit come after he spoke at the National Day Rally about the “50 to 100-year problem” of rising sea levels, an issue which could cost Singapore around S$100 billion or more to tackle. He had called climate change “one of the gravest challenges facing humankind”.

Energy-Climate & Environment

Singapore to do its full part to tackle climate change: PM Lee

24 September 2019

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Singapore

NEW YORK – Singapore will do its full part to mitigate climate change, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong pledged on Monday (Sept 23) at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, where dozens of world leaders outlined what their countries were doing to confront global warming.

“But however hard we try, Singapore will not be able to stop climate change on our own. Thus, we are cooperating with other countries on this common endeavour,” he said in a speech at the global conference in New York, where he will be until Friday.

Singapore, like many small island states, is vulnerable to the effects of global warming such as rising sea levels, said PM Lee. He issued the same grave warning as he did in his National Day Rally speech in August, saying: “For us, climate change is existential.”

Throughout the day, world leaders laid out in brief speeches what they were doing, from achieving carbon neutrality to cutting greenhouse emissions, to fight what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called a climate crisis.

PM Lee noted that Singapore pledged to peak its carbon emissions in around 2030, and will be switching to a cleaner fuel mix and using cleaner energy solutions.

Being small and very urbanised, Singapore is at a disadvantage when it comes to alternative energy sources, he said. Some, like wind turbines to produce electricity, require a lot of land.

But it has developed creative solutions within these constraints, said PM Lee, citing large-scale solar panels that float in Singapore’s reservoirs and just off its shores.

Singapore is also making its physical and transport infrastructure more green, and is aiming for 80 per cent of buildings in Singapore to have energy-saving features by 2030.

It also wants 90 per cent of peak hour commutes to be via public, active mobility and shared transport by 2040.

Singapore is working together with other countries on several climate change-related schemes, said PM Lee. He cited the Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Insurance Facility, which provides flood risk pooling for the region and is supported by Japan and the World Bank, among other examples.

“Climate change is the ultimate global commons challenge,” he said, calling on fellow leaders to redouble their efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Singapore is responsible for 0.11 per cent of global emissions, proportionately lower than its share of global GDP, which the International Monetary Fund puts at around 0.42 per cent.

US President Donald Trump made a brief surprise appearance at the summit in the late morning, despite originally not being slated to attend due to a clashing event on religious persecution.

Renewables

Meralco pushes energy transition plan

24 September 2019

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Philippines

MACTAN, Cebu, Philippines — Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is pushing for an energy transition plan from high- to low-carbon emissions among power companies to help attain the regional goal of energy sustainability and security.

During the Association of Electricity Supply Industry of East Asia and the Western Pacific (AESIEAP) CEO Conference, Meralco president and chief executive officer Ray Espinosa said “energy transition into renewables is inevitable given the twin perils of global warming and dwindling fossil fuel supplies. “

“We must develop and implement our energy transition plan. We should leverage on technological advancements of renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency that can be adopted in the whole region,” Espinosa said.

As the Philippines’ largest power distributor, Meralco is expected to have a “huge bearing” on the power sector as it currently transitions from high carbon to low carbon, and eventually to zero carbon down the road, Espinosa said.

However, achieving this would be dependent on the conditions in the country, the abundance of RE capacity, and the availability of technology.

“In our minds, we have set an agenda whereby as we contract stable sources of power, our minds are actually focused on basically moving ourselves from a high carbon to low carbon footprint and hopefully to a zero carbon electricity, which is tapping renewables. The issue in the Philippines is the abundance, whether it can actually substitute fully for fossil fuels. That’s a big question,” Espinosa said.

Meralco Powergen Corp. (MGen), the power generating arm of Meralco, is developing 1,000 to 2,000 megawatts (MW) of RE projects in the next five years.

“For MGen, we’re really focusing on developing 1,000-2,000 MW of RE in the next five years. We’re all over Luzon to identify these affordable sites. That’s the program from MGen. Hopefully we can provide this support to Meralco,” MGen president and CEO Rogelio Singson said.

Singson—who is also senior vice president at Meralco—said the power distributor also has to balance its power sources.

“It cannot be no-coal immediately,” he said.

To reduce carbon footprint, the group is looking at carbon capture and storage technology for coal-fired power plants, which are still considered as the cheapest power source in the country.

“There has to be a roadmap… a transition plan and this requires basically cooperation from all not only from the private sector but even the government because the government should lay down the policies for this transition to happen,” Espinosa said.

“We cannot make it work alone because there are other conditions that are dependent on government policies and actions,” he said.

The Philippines already sources 32 percent of its total power requirements from renewable energy sources. This is higher than the ASEAN regional target of 23 percent by 2030.

For its part, the Philippine government is employing a technology neutral stance on power development to focus on the country’s energy security.

“We really need to develop energy security…we’re still building our capacity that’s why DOE (Department of Energy) adopted technology neutrality. We need to fill up our capacity to sufficient reserves,” Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said.

To balance this, the DOE is also continuously pushing for the development of RE projects.

Energy-Climate & Environment

Thailand calls on developed countries to act on climate commitments

24 September 2019

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Thailand

Thailand Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha has called on developed countries to deliver on their financial commitments to scale-up climate finance that is secure, predictable and sustainable beyond next year.

Thailand Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Don Pramudwinai, and Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Varawut Silpa-archa at the UN Climate Action Summit in New YorkThailand MFA

Delivering a statement on behalf of Asean member states to the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York in his role as Asean Chair, General Chan-o-cha said that the increased impacts of climate change have increasingly threatened the region’s economic and social progress.

“Asean is highly vulnerable to impacts of climate change since most of our population lives along low-lying coasts and river plains. To minimise the effects we have strived to strengthen our resilience by implementing both climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. Asean is committed to being actively involved in global climate action at various levels”, he said.

Asean has exceeded its energy efficiency target

General Chan-o-cha told the assembly that in the area of energy transition “Asean has exceeded its energy efficiency target, reducing energy intensity by more than 21.9 per cent compared to 2005 levels, well ahead of its 2020 target.

Asean will continue to work towards the long-term target to reduce energy intensity by 30 per cent by 2025″, he said, adding that the trading bloc has set a target to increase the component of renewable energy mix by 23 per cent by 2025.

General Chan-o-cha also told the gathering that Asean aims to reduce the average fuel consumption of new light-duty vehicles sold throughout the region by 26 per cent between 2015 and 2025.

Member countries will also, he said, introduce and strengthen fiscal policy measures based on fuel economy or on CO2 emissions at national levels. In the long term the aim was the adoption of a regional fuel consumption standards for light-duty vehicles.

Partnership is vital

Thailand Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha: Asean stands ready to advance its partnership with the global community on climate action to ensure sustainability for present and future generationsThailand MFA

Referring to last year’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report “which warned us that we have less time to avoid potentially irreversible climate disruption”, General Chan-o-cha said “no one country can fight climate change alone. Partnership is vital”.

Stressing that “Asean stands ready to advance its partnership with the global community on climate action to ensure sustainability for present and future generations”, General Chan-o-cha said “today is an opportunity for developed countries to deliver on their financial commitments, and we also hope to see their strong political signals to scale-up climate finance that is secure, predictable and sustainable in the post-2020 context”.

General Chan-o-cha’s address on Monday (Sep 23) comes just days after students across the Asia-Pacific region joined their contemporaries globally for a day of climate crisis protests aimed at expressing their displeasure in the way world leaders and the heads of industry are damaging the Earth’s environment in the pursuit of endless profits (See: Climate strike Asean: youth across the AP demand climate action (photo gallery)) .

Others

Yangon to make efforts to open new CNG fuelling station

23 September 2019

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Myanmar

A submission for the government to acquire land for a new compressed natural gas (CNG) fuelling station in Yangon Region will be submitted in the coming budget year, said Yangon Region Minister for Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry and Energy U Han Tun during the sitting of the Regional Hluttaw (assembly) on Thursday.

The submission will also be sent to the Ministry of Electricity and Energy, U Han Tun said in response to a question from Mayangone township MP U Yan Shin on whether there is plan to build more CNG filling stations in the region for the convenience of users of CNG-powered vehicles.

Currently, there are 41 CNG stations in the Yangon Region.

“We’ll continue making requests to the Ministry of Electricity and Energy to open new CNG stations and to obtain land in coming budget year for the convenience of owners of CNG vehicles when refuelling and to facilitate maintenance work for CNG compressors,” said U Han Tun.

He also proposed the Yangon City Development Committee and Ministry of Electricity and Energy move the Ahlone 3 CNG station No.029 and East Dagon 2 CNG station No.023 to Yangon Bus Service terminals.

Myanmar Oil and Natural Gas Enterprise has expanded the availability of CNG for vehicles in 2014. Of the 41 CNG stations in Yangon, 17 of them have 38 Safe CNG Compressors from Italy and six stations are using Intermech CNG Compressors from New Zealand.

Five CNG stations are using six IMW CNG Compressors from Canada and one CNG station is using four Aspro CNG Compressors from Argentina, 17 CNG stations are using 20 L-Type CNG Compressors and 14 ZW-Type CNG Compressors made in China.

To maintain a consistent level of knowledge for maintaining the infrastructure, maintenance groups have been sent for training courses with foreign experts as well, said U Han Tun. – Translated

Others

Dr M: Govt may use digital city solution to improve quality of life

23 September 2019

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Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: The government may turn to digital solutions to help convert cities here into smart cities – which is among the main thrusts of the 12th Malaysia Plan (2021-2025), said Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“We envision smart cities that are integrated with sustainable technologies such as 5G connectivity, cashless communities, autonomous public transport, drone delivery, energy-efficient buildings, and the smart treatment of water and waste management.

“This will not only improve public safety but also the people’s quality of life,” he said in his speech that was recorded and played during the opening of Cities 4.0: The Launch of Malaysia’s Smart Cities Framework here today.

Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin was also present.

Dr Mahathir said the government wanted to develop a functional, resilient and efficient mobility system for the prosperity and wellbeing of the people.

Although the smart city concept has existed for nearly 30 years, he noted that the key issue hindering the development of smart cities in the country was because many smart city players worked in silos.

“In this context, the Housing and Local Government Ministry has prepared the Malaysia Smart City Framework.

“This comprehensive framework comprises all three tiers of government, as well as private sector participation to streamline and coordinate smart cities development in Malaysia.

“This is also to ensure a more informed guidelines and decision making process by the government, which takes consideration of views from all relevant stakeholders,” said Dr Mahathir.

Among issues the government wanted to address with the implementation of the Smart City initiatives, he said, included public transportation, one of the major concerns among the people.

He said the government was fully supportive in laying the foundation to build smart cities.

This, he said, was reflected in the government’s recent launching of the Kembara Digital Programme, where Malaysians are set to enjoy high quality and affordable digital connectivity.

“Leveraging on the National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan, I aspire to see smart cities grow efficiently to become smart regions.”

News Clipping

READ: PM Lee to meet President Trump, deliver speech at United Nations during visit to New York

READ: NDR 2019: Climate change one of the ‘gravest challenges facing mankind’, impact on Singapore to worsen, says PM Lee

Asean has exceeded its energy efficiency target

Partnership is vital

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