 | | | | ||||
|  [
Index
] | ||||||
 | |||||||
| | | | | |||
Review The Electricity Generation Capacity And The Peak Demand In Malaysia Statement by Dr Tan Seng Giaw, DAP National Vice-Chairman and MP for Kepong on the possibility of having another major outage in Malaysia | |||||||
| We are concerned with the various issues in Malaysia, from politics, economy, environment, education to energy. For example, we have kept an eye on the electricity supply in the country, especially after the privatization of the National Electricity Board into the Tenaga Nasional Berhad, TNB, and the appearance of the Independent Power Producers, IPP. On 3 August, 1996, the national outage affected 4.3 million consumers. After the major blackout, there have been minor disruptions in various parts of the country. For instance, on the night of 23 January 2000, the supply was interrupted three times at the University Garden, Petaling Jaya. The peak demand of electricity depends on the economy, higher in good and lower in bad times. The demand grew at 9.8 % per annum, hitting 15 % in 1996 and declining to 3.4 % in 1998. Although the Government says that it is increasing the accumulated installed capacity from 13,696 megawatts, MW, in 1998 to 14,996 MW in 2000, there are many factors which influence the capacity and the demand. Can 14,996 MW capacity cope | |
with the peak demand? The Government maintains that the peak demand in 2000 is 10,679 MW, with the difference between capacity and demand of about 4000 MW. Are these the actual figures? Is the Government able to prevent another major outage? We suggest that the Government review the accumulated installed capacity, the peak demand and their complicated factors. The disastrous outage three and a half years ago was not accidental. It stemmed from an oversight or relative lack of coordination between the Government, TNB and IPP including the understanding about standards, the types of generators, management and maintenance. Hitherto, the Government has not explained clearly about what indeed happened on 3 August 1996. Although at the end of !996, there was a minor reshuffle of the management of TNB, we are not sure whether the weaknesses in the system have been corrected. If all concerned do not review the system and rectify the weaknesses in time, then the saying that there are 'minor outages every year and a major outage every five years' may be true. Dr Tan Seng Giaw | |||||
| | | | | ||||
 | | |||||||
| [ Home | Political | Medical | Personal ] | Article #126 | |||||||
| [ Recent | Archives | Forum | Feedback ] | [
Index
]
| | | | |
| | ||
