News Clipping Archive - Page 992 of 1294

Electricity/Power Grid

Advanced meters among new initiatives to help households manage electricity usage

5 November 2019

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Singapore

SINGAPORE: Three new initiatives were announced on Tuesday (Nov 5) as part of efforts to help households use electricity more efficiently.

Details of the measures were provided in a joint news release by the Energy Market Authority (EMA), the Ministry of the Environment and Water resources (MEWR) and SP Group.

ADVANCED METERS

The measures include advanced electricity meters which are being installed at all households. The meters allow residents to access their half-hour electricity usage using the SP Utilities mobile app.

The analogue electricity meters currently being used are read manually only once every two months, which means residents are billed based on estimated and actual consumption in alternate months.

With the advanced meters, they can get a better picture of their consumption patterns and reduce usage to be more energy efficient.

By the end of September, about 290,000 such meters have been installed in households across Singapore, the release said.

“These meters were installed at new residential buildings and when the analogue meters were due for replacement,” it added. “The remaining 1.1 million households will have advanced meters installed within the next five years.”

SP Group will notify residents by mail of the installation schedule for the advanced meters. No payment will be required, unless residents choose to have it installed ahead of schedule. In such cases, a S$40 one-time installation fee (before GST) will be charged.

EMA’s chief executive Ngiam Shih Chun said: “With advanced electricity meters, all households can have more timely information on their electricity usage which will help them be more energy efficient and lower their electricity bills.”

READ: Greater participation in green workshops, amid calls for more climate change education in schools

APP ENHANCEMENTS

The SP Utilities mobile app will also undergo enhancements to provide more timely and useful information to help households be more energy efficient.

It will include new features, such as a Carbon Footprint Tracker, to aid customers in making changes to their lifestyle habits to save energy.

SP App — Screenshots of the enhanced SP Utilities mobile app. (Images: SP Group)

SP Group will also launch the GreenUP initiative in-app, where users can earn “leaves” when they complete eco-challenges and adopt sustainable habits, such as opting for electronic bills.

They can then use the “leaves” earned to redeem shopping rewards from CapitaLand malls, the press release said.

CUSTOMISED REPORTS

EMA and MEWR will also conduct a six-month study involving 1,000 households in Jurong who already have advanced meters. Participants in the study, which starts in December, will receive an energy efficiency report every month to help them understand their electricity usage. It will also include customised energy-saving tips.

MEWR permanent secretary Albert Chua said these reports aim to “empower households to make simple, positive changes to their daily routines”.

“The effort of every Singaporean counts. Together, we can help reduce Singapore’s carbon footprint and fight climate change.”

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/initiatives-energy-electricity-efficient-sp-group-app-new-meters-12065810

Energy Efficiency

Green transport the way forward

5 November 2019

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Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: The yearly hike in the number of vehicles clogging up city roads has resulted in a pressing need for the adoption of more green transport initiatives in Malaysia.Currently, about 90 percent of vehicles in Malaysia are fossil-fuelled and land transport is known to be among the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.This situation warrants more aggressive mobilisation of measures to facilitate the transition from fossil fuels to green energy such as biofuels and energy harnessed from renewable sources such as solar, hydro and wind, said Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia senior lecturer in electrical and electronic engineering Associate Prof Dr Sawal Hamid Md Ali.

According to media reports, the NTP’s vision is to develop a sustainable transport sector that accelerates economic growth and one of its main thrusts is moving towards a green transport ecosystem.Budget 2020, which was tabled at the Dewan Rakyat recently, has allocated RM450 million to acquire up to 500 electric buses of various sizes for public transport in selected cities nationwide.The NTP and budget allocation are proof of the government’s commitment towards creating greener cities for the well-being of the people, which is in line with its shared prosperity vision. However, the number of environmentally-friendly vehicles currently plying on Malaysian roads and proposed under Budget 2020 is hardly sufficient to realise the true essence of the term green transport, said Sawal Hamid, who is attached to UKM’s Department of Electrical, Electronic and Systems Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment.To get there, he added, the government would need to formulate compre hensive short- and long-term steps to thrust Malaysia towards becoming a green technology nation.The use of bicycles and electric cars, motorcycles, buses and trains (equipped with an ultra capacitor), as well as carpooling and walking constitute green transport measures.“Although there are assertions that electric vehicles are not exactly ‘green’ because they need to be charged with electricity from the power grid, they still qualify as green transport as the electricity for charging the vehicles can be obtained from renewable sources like solar and hydro,” Sawal Hamid told Bernama. He said it is for this very reason why the government should look into the use of green technology when implementing initiatives to encourage the use of electric vehicles.

“Presently, Malaysia mainly depends on coal for power generation,” he said.Following its participation in the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009, the Malaysian government pledged a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 and 45 percent by 2030.Some of the initiatives to achieve these targets are outlined in the National Electric Mobility Blueprint (2015-2030). By 2030, the government hopes to have 100,000 electric cars, 100,000 electric motorcycles and 2,000 electric buses on Malaysian roads, as well as 125,000 charging stations.“However, we are still far from realising these targets. For example, as of September 2018, only 400 charging stations were made available, as against the target of 3,000 by end-2018,” pointed out Sawal Hamid.He stressed that it is crucial to attain the target set for charging stations before achieving the electric vehicle targets.He, however, said that Malaysia’s electric vehicle policy and tax cuts to encourage the use of such vehicles have placed the nation on the right track.“However, the use of electric vehicles is not growing fast enough. Their high prices (despite the tax cuts) and shortage of charging stations are deterring people from using such vehicles,” he said.The third national car project, with its focus on the electric or hybrid model, may lower their prices, he added. Sawal Hamid also said that the government should raise public awareness about the importance of green technology to the environment and human life in general. “Only when the public is aware will they start using green transport options,” he said, adding that the government should provide more environmentally-friendly modes of transport for the public.“The use of electric or hybrid buses is a good option. Once people become more aware (of the benefits of green transport), they will start using public transport.”Other green transport initiatives include providing a conducive environment for pedestrians and cyclists, which will encourage more people to walk or cycle to their destinations.For the long term, the government should work towards planning and developing smart and sustainable cities, complete with first- and last-mile transportation, conducive pedestrian and cycling lanes and urban areas that are within walking distance, he added. –Bernama

Renewables

Kingdom lays out the welcome mat for renewable energy investment

5 November 2019

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Cambodia

The government welcomes investment from Germany in the Kingdom’s solar and renewable energy sector as local demand for electricity continues to rise between 15 to 20 per cent annually, Ministry of Mines and Energy official Victor Jona said on Tuesday in Phnom Penh.

Jona, who is the director-general of the ministry’s General Department of Energy, made the comment at the Conference on Industrial & Commercial Solar in Cambodia, which was organised by the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce in Myanmar.

“It is the right time for German investors to invest in solar and renewable energy in our country as we currently enjoy high political stability. The climate is favourable for such investments.

“With sound political stability boosting confidence for them [German investors] to inject their money, their investments can also contribute to power development, job creation and maintaining a clean environment,” he said.

Jona said the government aims to generate 410MW from solar energy by the end of next year, which represents between 15 and 17 per cent of total energy production.

“Within Asean, I don’t see any other countries that can generate 10 per cent of their energy from solar facilities.”

Delegate of German Industry and Commerce in Myanmar Martin Klose brought four active German companies specialising in renewable and solar energy to encourage direct dialogue with local firms, exchange information and mobilise investment opportunities in Cambodia.

“We are encouraging German investors to invest in Cambodia’s solar sector. We are convinced that there are suitable opportunities.

“And we have decided to bring German companies to the Kingdom to look at the market and consider the many potential opportunities they may find,” he said.

Speaking during the opening of the conference, German Ambassador to Cambodia Christian Berger said a German Business and Cooperation Desk is scheduled to be set up in the European Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia (EuroCham) to share information with and provide services to investors from both countries.

“There is a plan to have a permanent Desk here in Phnom Penh. This shows that the potential of the Cambodian market is growing. The Desk will, of course, be set up inside EuroCham because this is the only economic option for advocacy as well as for providing services,” he said.

Jona said the government has established solar farms in Svay Rieng province’s border town of Bavet and Pursat, Kampong Speu, Kampong Chhnang, Battambang and Banteay Meanchey provinces.

The government provides a nine-year tax holiday for investors in the sector and does not impose taxes on imported materials for project construction.

In early April, the Council for the Development of Cambodia approved the registration of two Schnei Tec Co Ltd solar power stations each with a 60MW electricity capacity in Kampong Chhnang province’s Teuk Phos district and Pursat province’s Krakor district.

The stations will be built under a build-owned-operate framework with more than $58 million invested in each with a 20-year concession term.

Last year, Cambodia consumed 2,650MW, a 15 per cent increase compared to 2017.

Energy Cooperation

Gulf Energy inks agreement to study building of 6,000 MW LNG power plant in Vietnam National

5 November 2019

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Vietnam

Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Nguyen Xuan Phuc together with Vietnam’s Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh on Saturday (November 2) presided over the signing of a cooperation agreement for the development of an integrated LNG-power project in Vietnam’s Ninh Thuan province between Gulf Energy Development Public Co Ltd (Gulf) and Luu Xuan Vinh, president of Ninh Thuan Provincial People’s Committee.
The signing, held on the sidelines of the 35th Asean Summit and Related Summits at Impact Muang Thong Thani, was led on the Thai side by Gulf’s president Porntipa Chinvetkitvanit, former Supreme Court president Cheep Jullamon and former Minister of Energy Viset Choopiban.

The project aims to study the feasibility of building a liquid natural gas (LNG) power plant with the capacity of 6,000 megawatts and fully equipped with a LNG processing and distribution station to support economic and urban expansion in the Southeastern region of Vietnam.

Energy Economy

World Bank sees rise in energy financing for LNG, RE projects

5 November 2019

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ASEAN

SINGAPORE – The World Bank Group is anticipating that financing flow in energy projects will be largely dominated by new projects in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) and renewable energy (RE) sectors in the near- to longer-term investment horizons.

“LNG will remain to have a lot of space in energy financing as gas demand increases in Asia. LNG will play a key role as the cost of gas comes down substantially, so I see LNG financing going up,” said Ranjit Lamech, regional director of the World Bank’s Infrastructure Department in East and the Pacific region, at the Singapore Energy Summit.

The Philippines is among the countries in Southeast Asia that is cementing its pathway into having fresh investments in the LNG sector because of the anticipated production decline of its only commercial gas-producing field.

Another sector that he sees gobbling up most of available energy funding will be the RE ventures. “Renewables has been accelerating for quite a while and that will continue,” Lamech emphasized.

Nevertheless, he said there are now manifest challenges when it comes to financing new RE projects given the precipitous slide in the technology costs – primarily for solar and wind installations.

“One issue that is emerging with the financing of renewables — where banks and institutions like ourselves are often challenged to increase the level of the financing — is because of risks on the asset side,” he stressed.

Lamech cited a case wherein a bank may be extending financing for a solar project at 7 to 8 US cents at the project’s construction, and then suddenly, the cost of the technology would go down to the level of 3 to 4 US cents and there could be tendencies for governments or policymakers to exert pressure on developers to bring down electricity costs without seriously considering the economics that the project sponsor and its lenders have had at the approval and construction phase of such installations.

“So the technology risk – from a consumer perspective it’s good for the world in general. But oftentimes, these pose challenges on the collateral and technology risks side. This is an issue that concerns us, along with all the other banks, whether we can continue financing these assets — so that’s an important factor to consider,” the World Bank executive noted.

Beyond these two industry segments, he indicated that energy access or electrification ventures in many remote areas of various countries in Asia – including Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and the Philippines, will also be cornering funding for projects as well as those that are packaged as grants or technical assistance.

“In terms of growth on energy financing, a couple of Southeast Asian countries still need access to electrification financing – whether you are Myanmar, countries in the Pacific Island or other countries like Vietnam or the Philippines,” he said.

The distribution segment of the power industry although unpopular, is similarly perceived to be having its share on available cash or lending portfolios being funneled to the energy sector.

“Financing in distribution is going to scale up because people deserve valuable service. That is not just a very popular side, many people don’t talk about it but their loads are increasing,”Lamech said.

Energy Economy

ISDN in tie-up to build Cambodia power plant

5 November 2019

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Cambodia

Mainboard-listed ISDN Holdings has taken a 33 per cent stake in a joint venture that will build an 80MW hydroelectric power plant in Cambodia.

The industrial automation firm will inject US$500,000 (S$679,000) as equity into the joint venture and another US$2.5 million as a shareholder loan representing the expected sum for the project’s initial development phase, it said yesterday.

The project has already received confirmation and guarantees from the Cambodian government for business rights for the construction of the plant and for the sale of electricity at a fixed price to the Cambodia Electric Power Corporation.

Its operating rights will be transferred to the corporation 35 years after the plant starts operations.

The joint venture is called SPHP and is incorporated here. Tokyo-listed eREX holds 34 per cent and Cambodian company Asia Energy Power the remaining 33 per cent.

eREX is a power producer and supplier, while Asia Energy Power is a newly incorporated Cambodian firm that builds electric power plants.

ISDN managing director and president Teo Cher Koon said the group had been looking for “lucrative opportunities” to further penetrate Asia’s renewable energy sector.

In a separate announcement yesterday, ISDN said its unit ISDN Myanmar Power has disposed of its 30 per cent stake in C&I Renewable for 822,172 yuan (S$159,000) in cash.

Oil & Gas

Gas to lead transformation in energy mix

5 November 2019

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ASEAN

SINGAPORE – With rising sea levels and a warming planet, the transformation of the global energy mix to cleaner sources is expected to be led by the gas sector while renewables will continue to gain traction, according to a US energy official.

Kurt Donnelly, deputy assistant secretary for Energy Diplomacy of the US State Department, said that as “customers look for reliable and flexible electricity – and renewables today cannot fully provide that until the commercial maturity of storage solutions, the best solution to cleaner energy transformation is natural gas.”

Donnelly emphasized that “electricity demand globally is expected to double or triple from what we have today,” and the natural consequence of that will be the need for a lot more fuel for electricity generation going forward.

He also noted that fossil fuels will still have a place in the transformative phase of the energy sector onward to 2050, and that coal cannot still be totally phased out but gas will be taking a larger pie in the mix. Renewables, in the meantime, will be on an accelerated pace of installations in the future.

“Certainly energy needs to be cleaner but we also need solutions that will be sustainable,” said Donnelly. He said gas will be the leader in that transition pathway given the abundant supply sources and with its costs that had already gotten so much cheaper.

The view of the US State department had been echoed by a study done by global think tank International Energy Agency (IEA), which noted the rising reliance of many Southeast Asian countries on fossil fuels.

For ASEAN countries (Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) to “come out cleaner” on their deployment of energy technologies, the IEA prescribed that they must seriously deal with “legacy issues” such as addressing the higher emissions spewed out from older technologies in coal-fired power facilities which are not only an assault to the environment but they are also less efficient when it comes to electricity generation.

As noted by Keisuke Sadamori, the IEA’s director of Energy Markets and Security, “based on today’s policy settings, Southeast Asia’s overall energy demand is set to grow by 60-percent between now and 2040,” but in parallel to that, he emphasized that this region has also been relentlessly increasing its oil and coal imports and the “troubling signs” are now manifesting.

“All fuels and technologies play a part in meeting the projected increase in oil — surpassing nine million barrels per day (mb/d) by 2040 or up from just above 6.5 mb/d today. (While) coal demand rises steadily,” the IEA study has stipulated.

The Paris-headquartered global think tank noted that “if the region continues on this track, the consequences would be troubling,” while emphasizing that the projected growth in fossil fuel consumption in this part of the world “would drive a two-thirds rise in CO2 emissions – reaching almost 2.4 billion tonnes in 2040.”

And while renewable energy installations in some power markets are picking up, the overall energy supply-demand balance for most countries in Southeast Asia is still for them becoming net importers of fossil fuels.
“Oil is the largest element in the regional energy mix, and coal – largely for power generation, has been the fastest growing,” IEA said, stressing that “this has underpinned the region’s development and industrial growth, but has also made air pollution a major risk to public health and driven up energy-related CO2 emissions.”

Energy Cooperation

Egat talks power trade with Cambodia, Myanmar

5 November 2019

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Thailand

The state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) is planning to talk with power authorities in Cambodia and Myanmar to trade electricity from Thailand at a combined capacity of 500 megawatts.

Patana Sangsriroujana, deputy governor for policy and planning, said Egat has been ordered by Energy Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong to talk with the two governments about future power trading.

“The sales to Cambodia will happen quicker than Myanmar because some transmission lines have been developed in Cambodia,” said Mr Patana.

“Myanmar requires new investment for power infrastructure.”

He said the electricity trade to both countries should begin by 2023. The energy ministers of the three countries need to agree on a contract.

Mr Patana said the Laos government is also interested in trading power to Cambodia and Myanmar under its Battery of Asia policy.

After the talk ends, both buyers and sellers will study the feasibility in more detail such as power capacity, locations of transmission lines, power tariffs and periods of trade.

This new trade is another step after a power agreement between Laos, Malaysia and Thailand.

The three countries agreed to a second power purchase under the Laos, Thailand and Malaysia Power Integration Project (LTM-PIP) in September during the Asean Ministers on Energy Meeting and Associated Meetings (AMEM) in Bangkok.

Trade between the three countries has increased to 300MW, from 100MW in the first LTM-PIP.

Mr Patana said community-owned power plants will be developed from renewable resources under the government’s Energy for All scheme, resulting in power generation of 500-1,000MW, which can be traded to neighbours in Southeast Asia.

In addition, representatives from Myanmar said during AMEM the country needs to widen power access to locals.

Some 50% of Myanmar’s population cannot access electricity, which is obstructing its economic growth.

Mr Patana said Egat’s preliminary study found Thailand can trade electricity to Myanmar through the immigration checkpoint at Mae Sot, Tak.

Mr Sontirat, the energy minister, said last week Thailand’s power supply has a large surplus with installed capacity of 44,000MW.

Peak demand is 32,000MW, leaving plenty of room to trade power to neighbouring countries.

“A lot of new power plants are expected to begin operation over the next three years, increasing the capacity surplus to 30% from 27% now,” said Mr Sontirat.

News Clipping

READ: Greater participation in green workshops, amid calls for more climate change education in schools

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