Myanmar has increased Electricity production rate of over 470 megawatts more within a month, raising the total to 3,430 megawatts, according to Ministry of Electricity and Energy.
Myanmar produced maximum amount of 3,431 megawatts on November 25 while it produced only 2,956 megawatts as of October 25.
Electricity consumption rate in Yangon Region currently demands up to 1,242 megawatts, more than 36 per cent of overall electricity consumption rate. Mandalay Region uses 500 megawatts and is about 14.6 per cent of total electricity consumption rate.
Nay Pyi Taw requires 130 megawatts and is at about 3.8 per cent. Electricity consumption rates in other states and regions combined are 1,316 megawatts – filling in the rest of the country’s total electricity demand by more than 38 per cent.
Yangon Region is expected to require double the electricity supply amount by 2020.
Kim Young-sang, chief executive of Posco Daewoo Corp., left, shakes hands with Haydn Ian Furlonge, chief executive of Brunei National Petroleum Company, after signing an MoU on LNG value chain development on Wednesday. [Photo provided by Posco Daewoo Corp.]Posco Daewoo Corp., the trading and energy development unit of South Korean steelmaker Posco, has joined hands with Brunei’s national oil company to develop liquefied natural gas (LNG) value chain solutions with hopes to expand business in the environmentally-friendly fuel sector.
Posco Daewoo said on Wednesday that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Brunei National Petroleum Company Sdn Bhd (Petroleum Brunei) on LNG value chain business expansion. Petroleum Brunei is a national resources development company that promotes comprehensive energy business in the Southeast Asian country with abundant petroleum and gas.
LNG value chain development involves overall procedure from gas exploration and production to liquefaction, transportation, and sales. It encompasses overall development of related business sectors based on market demand rather than individual development.
Under the latest MoU, the two companies will promote joint exploration of mines in Brunei and other countries in the upstream sector and also cooperate in deep sea mine development currently under operations by Posco Daewoo. They will also review joint investment in infrastructure asset-related projects such as those involving LNG liquefaction and import terminals. The two companies will also share information on overall LNG value chain from LNG bunkering to supply.
Posco Daewoo has been putting out efforts to expand its LNG business from gas exploration to liquefaction and sales. LNG – which creates much less emissions – is considered an alternative energy to coal amid enhanced global environmental regulations.
The world’s demand for LNG is projected to reach 430 million tons in 2040, up 40 percent from 2017. In particular, demand is projected to increase significantly in the Asia Pacific region such as China and India.
The Philippines is one of the most attractive markets for clean energy investments, according to a recent study published by the Bloomberg NEF.
This year’s Climatescope Emerging Market Outlook showed the country ranked 6th out of 103 economies with a score of 2.29. This is the first time the Philippines was included in the study.
Only the Philippines and Thailand were included in the top 10 countries that are the most attractive for clean energy investment. Thailand was ranked 10th in the study.
“There has been staggered renewables build, and the country plans to hit 15.3 gigawatts of renewable-energy [RE] capacity by 2030 and total generating capacity of about 65 GW by 2040,” the study stated. “With a large increase in forecast demand there is potential for renewables to grab part of the pie.”
The study evaluated the presence of fundamentals, opportunities and experience in countries that will encourage the growth and development of clean energy investments.
The Philippines scored 2.95 in fundamentals, 1.54 in opportunities and 1.71 in experience. Fundamentals account for 50 percent of the score, while opportunities and experience account for 25 percent each.
These fundamentals refer to clean energy policies, power sector structure and regulation, as well as any local barriers that might obstruct RE development.
The study explained that a country with comprehensive and strong policies and a more liberalized power sector tends to be more welcoming to private investment than one with weaker frameworks and lesser degree of liberalization.
“Two major laws, the Electric Power Industry Reform Act and Renewable Energy Act, have incentivized growth in the Philippines’s renewable sector,” the study explained.
“The government has also opened more options for developers to sign power supply agreements directly with customers with a large enough demand. It also mandated utilities to facilitate retail opportunities for customers wanting renewable power through a Green Energy Option program,” it added.
Opportunities, meanwhile, referred to a country’s current and future electricity demand, its energy consumption, and its carbon-dioxide emissions from the power sector, along with overall price attractiveness, short- and medium-term opportunities for RE procurement, history of corporate commitment with sustainability and existing electrification rates.
The study stated that this aims to seek to encapsulate the future opportunities for clean energy growth available in a country.
In terms of experience, the study stated that this refers to a country’s volume of installed clean energy, historical levels of RE investment and the comprehensiveness of its nonmanufacturing clean energy value chains.
The Climatescope report also said markets with greater experience deploying RE capacity typically offer lower risks, lower technology costs and lower costs of capital for investors.
“A feed-in-tariff has spurred 1.052 GW of renewables growth, and behind-the-meter policies have achieved an impressive 50 megawatts of distributed resources. Over the past two decades, the Philippines went through significant energy reform, including opening the power industry to the private sector,” the study read.
Apart from the Philippines and Thailand, other countries that were included on the top 10 were Chile which ranked first overall followed by India, second; Jordan, third; Brazil, fourth; Rwanda, fifth; China, seventh; Mexico, eighth; and Peru, ninth.
For 2018 the Climatescope project was expanded and updated by increasing the number of countries included to 103, aside from 100 nations classified by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as less developed.
The survey also includes three countries—Chile, Mexico and Turkey—that are an important part of the developing-nation story but are not technically classified as non-OECD. As a result of this expansion, Climatescope now offers a comprehensive snapshot of virtually all developing nations.
This year’s Climatescope Emerging Market Outlook represents the collective effort of 42 BloombergNEF analysts who made 54 country visits to collect data and conduct interviews. The study was again supported by the UK Department for International Development.
Malaysia hopes to promote the identification of potentials and prospects for green industries and jobs in Asean member states besides developing corresponding policies. (NSTP Archive)
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia hopes to promote the identification of potentials and prospects for green industries and jobs in Asean member states besides developing corresponding policies.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said this while referring to the Malaysia’s role as the chair of the association’s labour sector from 2018 to 2020.
“Going further, we look forward to working with Asean Dialogue partners such as China, the Republic of Korea and Japan to make a meaningful headway for the future of green jobs and green skills in Asean.
“I am confident that under the the stewardship of the Human Resources Minister (M. Kulasegaran) the Asean labour section will witness significant outcomes in promoting and facilitating the greening of industries as well as jobs and skills,” said Dr Mahathir in his speech text that was read by Kulasegaran at the opening of the 25th Asean Labour Ministers meeting.
Dr Mahathir further said that over the last two years, employment in the green economy across the bloc grew by 3.2 per cent compared to the overall economic expansion of five to six per cent.
“As a result nearly 1.4 million new green jobs were created based on the Development Bank of Singapore’s 2017 annual report.
“We have also seen strong growth in the renewable energy sector such as wind and solar power as well as production of equipment and installations for heating and energy savings that subsequently create jobs in the region.”
Dr Mahathir also said that the sectors that contributed to green jobs are agriculture, construction, forestry, renewable energy, transport and waste management.
He said that there was a need to raise awareness on green jobs as well as up-skilling, reskilling, grading and certification on related programmes.
Dr Mahathir further said that these were the aspects that Malaysia could exploit and could be beneficial to the Asean bloc at large.
TAGUIG CITY, Nov. 28 — Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi yesterday said that the “keen interest which many investors expressed in exploring oil and gas in the Philippines” augurs well for the country’s development and energy security.
Sec. Cusi made the comment after the launch of the Philippine Conventional Energy Contracting Program (PCECP) last 22 November 2018 at the Shangri-la at the Fort Hotel in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.
“We are pleased with the recent turnout of investors who graced the event and expressed their interest with the PCECP,” Sec. Cusi said.
The PCECP is a program that offers 14 pre-determined areas, and the option for investors to propose their own exploration area, making oil and gas exploration a dynamic investment prospect for players in the energy sector.
“There is so much untapped potential for energy exploration in the Philippines that is ripe for the picking as our energy needs grow every year. With the savings that we can generate from the utilization of our own energy resources, our economy and our people can reap huge benefits,” Sec. Cusi added.
Presently, there are only 23 active Petroleum Service Contracts (PSC) in the country, with the Malampaya Deep Water Gas-to-Power Project as the most successful PSC stemming from the previous Philippine Energy Contracting Round.
Under the PCECP, the DOE revised the investment mechanism. It provides a more investor-friendly environment which is consistent with the directions set by President Rodrigo Duterte.
The application process under the PCECP has also been streamlined to provide potential investors with a quicker turnaround time for administrative and documentary requirements to prevent unnecessary delays.
“With the success of our ASEAN neighbors in their energy exploration activities, we deem it our priority for local exploration to flourish as we are driven to make sure that the demand for energy is met. We see that the program will offer positive contributions to our economy as a direct result of exploration-related investment.”
Prior to the launch of the PCECP, the DoE conducted several roadshows throughout the country and in Singapore to attract local and foreign investors.
In October, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the first service contract for petroleum exploration under his administration. Service Contract No. 76, covering Area 4 of Eastern Palawan, was awarded to Israeli firm Ratio Petroleum Ltd. signaling the push to revive the country’s upstream petroleum industry. (DOE)
FDI is now expected to reach up to 100% in 54 sectors.
Indonesia plans to loosen foreign direct investment (FDI) restrictions, with FDI now being able to reach up to 100% in 54 sectors.
Reports from Mondaq said there will be no change in respect to ownership (67%) of geothermal power generation of up to 10MW.
Ownership limits were set for geothermal operating and maintenance services (90%), power generation beyond 10MW (95% for general, and 100% for PPP during the concession period).
The cap was also adjusted for geothermal drilling services (95%), geothermal surveying services (95%), and testing and analysis of electrical installation of high or extra-high voltage electrical power generating and utility installation (49%).
“In some sectors, such as power generation, this is not a huge shift as these dispensations already existed,” Mondaq said. “However, it indicates an overall change of stance that sends a positive message to the market, which will in the long run make projects more bankable.”
Sunseap panels on Housing Development Board flats in Singapore. The city-state’s government aims to have 350MW of solar power installed by 2030. Image: Sunseap
A local start-up is on the way to bringing peer-to-peer energy trading to Singapore, which its founder says will grow the renewable energy market in the sun-drenched island nation.
A Singapore start-up has launched a trial for the country’s first peer-to-peer energy trading platform.
Called Synergy, the platform will enable Singapore residents to produce, buy and sell renewable energy to one another.
Residents will be able to buy electricity from “prosumers”, consumers that double as small-scale producers when they generate extra energy, usually through rooftop solar panels.
When completed, consumers will have the option of paying for their electricity with regular currency or a cryptocurrency called Elec. The second option will log the transaction into the blockchain, which serves as a unchangeable record of the deal.
The platform was launched last month for the first phase of testing among a group of 15 consumers, prosumers and energy generators.They include households in public housing, a penthouse, and solar firm Cleantech Solar, said Julius Tan, chief executive officer and co-founder of Electrify, the company behind the platform.
In this alpha testing stage, Electrify is working to ensure that fluctuating levels of energy demand and solar energy from producers and consumers can be evened out to ensure a steady supply of electricity through its algorithms.
“We have created a way to optimise the system, so that if there’s overproduction of solar energy by one producer and underproduction another another because of cloud cover, we can take that extra energy and make up for that shortfall,” Tan explained.
He added that the company is testing the ability of its internet-of-things equipment to handle different energy production scenarios.
The test will run into the first quarter of 2019, after which a beta test with payment features will be trialled.
Electrify will eventually combine Synergy with its existing energy retail aggregation site, which functions similarly to third-party travel sites such as Agoda and Skyscanner. Tan told Eco-Business that offers from prosumers will show up alongside offers from energy retailers.
The 18 month–old start-up’s offering is not the first to use blockchain technology in peer-to-peer energy trading platforms in Southeast Asia. Shanghai’s Energo runs a project within a university campus in Manila and Power Ledger’s pilot in Bangkok operates a similar concept among buildings located within the same neighbourhood.
In contrast, Synergy is meant to be scaled across an entire city rather than a microgrid as in the Philippines example. And unlike the Bangkok project, Electrify’s platform will allow producers and consumers to trade from one end of the city to the other.
On 1 November, Singapore deregulated the energy market for consumer households, enabling residents to choose their energy provider.The government has set a goal to achieve 350 megawatt peak capacity in installed solar capacity by 2020 and 1 gigawatt beyond 2020. But being densely populated with 80 per cent of the population living in government-subsidised apartments, where will the prosumers come from?
Admitting that there “probably isn’t going to be a huge producer market”, Tan said that is why Electrify is focusing on acquiring excess power from commercial and industrial buildings with solar facilities.
Electrify aims to launch its renewed marketplace platform with Synergy and begin alpha testing in Tokyo in 2019.
Asked how he squares Synergy’s aim of boosting the renewable energy market in Singapore with the energy-intensive nature of blockchain technology, Tan said: “Current blockchain technologies are not the most energy efficient.”
But there is a lot of research exploring how to reduce the technology’s energy footprint without sacrificing blockchain’s transparency and tamper-proof nature, he added.
More energy efficient blockchain technology could then “drive down the cost of using blockchain”, said Tan.
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23 (Reuters) – Malaysia’s Petronas said on Friday production at the Kebabangan gas field in the eastern state of Sabah was expected to return to full capacity by August 2019 following disruption caused by a gas leak at an associated pipeline.
The problem was caused by a leak from the Sabah Sarawak Gas Pipeline in January, the state energy firm said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
Repair works on the pipeline have been completed, and integrity assurance tests being conducted on the 500-kilometre pipeline are expected to be finished by July 2019, it said.
“The supply disruption, however, did not impact our LNG (liquefied natural gas) cargo deliveries to customers,” Petronas said.
Last week, Malaysia’s finance minister said the country’s economic growth was impacted by supply disruption at the Kebabangan gas field. Gas exports have been severely impacted since the second quarter, he said.
Malaysia is the world’s third-biggest exporter of LNG, and Petronas is a significant contributor to state coffers.
The country’s economy grew at its slowest in two years in the July-September quarter, in part because of “supply shocks” in the LNG sector. Growth in the prior quarter had also been hit by supply disruptions.
Reuters reported in August that Malaysia’s exports of LNG fell to a four-year low in July as domestic gas pipeline issues since January took their toll.
Recent trade data showed Malaysia’s third-quarter LNG exports totalled 8.7 billion ringgit ($2.1 billion) in value, down about 21 percent from the same period last year.
