Energy Demand In Malaysia Research Articles

An Exploratory Study on Students’ Electricity Consumption in RCE Gombak For Sustainable Communities

Rising energy demand in Malaysia has become an increasing concern. Malaysia uses more energy to produce a unit of GDP over time; when more energy is needed to create an output of similar value, this impacts the overall cost of production and may contribute to increased environmental degradation. In line with SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities and SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, this study aims to understand the electricity consumption of students and their knowledge of energy efficiency. The study was conducted at Sekolah Berasrama Penuh Integrasi Gombak in the year 2022. A questionnaire was distributed to the students containing questions about basic knowledge of climate change and energy efficiency. The survey also contained questions to gauge the students’ electricity consumption behaviour. Some of the questions were formulated based on Malaysia’s National Energy Efficiency Action Plan 2016-2025. The purpose is to discover to what extent secondary school students are aware of government initiatives to reduce energy consumption.

Biomass Energy in Malaysia: Current Scenario, Policies, and Implementation Challenges.

The energy demand in Malaysia has shown a dramatic increase over the last few years: with natural gas and coal being the primary contributors. Nevertheless, due to declining in fossil fuel reserves coupled with negative environmental impacts, shifting to sustainable renewable energy for meeting the future energy demand is recommended. Since Malaysia is rich with natural resources, utilization of biomass energy (bioenergy/biofuel) as the alternative energy is promising to be further explored. Therefore, this review paper intents to discuss the current scenario of different types of biomass energy in Malaysia along with the up-to-date local biomass energy–related environmental policy (from 2016 onwards). In addition, challenges and barriers for large-scale implementation of the biomass energy in Malaysia are to be discussed. Overall, this review paper is interesting as it can assist in promoting the biomass utilization as energy source, and to ensure the future growth of biomass energy market in the country along with its effective implementation while alleviating poor disposal problem and to create job employment opportunities. Furthermore, a collective effort to expand potential biomass feedstocks, apart from oil palm, should be emphasized to encourage the renewable energy production diversification in the nation.

Malaysia Moving Towards a Sustainability Municipal Waste Management

The elevation of waste generation subsequent to population growth has become a severe environmental topic in Malaysia. Since most of the waste is being dumped into a landfill, the open dumpsite, or unsanitary landfills which are not constructed with proper engineering plan, severe impacts on the environment result. The energy demand in Malaysia increased with the growing population, but reliance on fossil fuels to generate electricity has created another greenhouse gas contributor. Alternatively, waste-to-energy technology solves the problem of increasing waste by converting the waste to a renewable energy source. Malaysia has moved towards landfill gas recovery system and incineration for waste energy recovery. The recovery system and refuse-derived fuel plant achieved expectation; however, the incineration plants have failed due to the opposition of the public, lack of funding and technician expertise, and other technical issues. The solid waste management practices lacking separation and recycling sources, become an obstacle for development. The government puts effort into solving the current issue by promoting recycling in the public, enforcing the legislation, and approaching new technologies for better solid waste management practice in the future. This paper aims to discuss the application of energy recovery from municipal solid waste in Malaysia.

Long-term energy demand in Malaysia as a function of energy supply: A comparative analysis of Non-Linear Autoregressive Exogenous Neural Networks and Multiple Non-Linear Regression Models

Energy modeling and forecasting are key to providing insightful energy-related policy decisions that could propel positive economic growth and sustainable development. In this study, the Non-Linear Autoregressive Exogenous Neural Networks (NARX) and Multiple Non-Linear Regression (MNLR) models were employed for modeling the final energy demand per capita in Malaysia. The non-linear relationship between the time-series data such as GDP per capita, population, crude oil supply, natural gas supply, coal and coke supply, hydropower, electricity demand per capita, and the final energy demand per capita were modeled using five NARX and MNLR models refer to as NARX-1, NARX-3, NARX-5, MNLR-1, and MNLR-2. The effect of varying the network time delay and the hidden neurons on the NARX model performance were investigated. The best model configuration was obtained using 1 network delay and 17 hidden neurons. Both the NARX-1 and MNLR-1 models accurately learn the time series data for the prediction of the final energy consumption per capita. With R2 of 0.999 and 0.996 obtained for the NARX-1 and MLNR-1, respectively, the predicted final energy demand per capita was in close agreement with the actual values. Using the NARX-1 and MNLR-1 models, the final energy demand per capita was projected to be 2.3 toe/person and 2.1toe/person, respectively by 2050. The level of importance analysis of the NARX-1 models and the parameter estimates of the MNLR-1 model revealed that an increase in population and natural gas supply had a significant influence on the predicted final energy demand per capita.

Establishment of Industrial Energy Benchmarking in Malaysian Downstream Palm Oil Industry

The second largest energy demand in Malaysia comes from industrial sector (28 % of the total demand) and one of the main industries in Malaysia is palm oil industry. The energy consumption in Malaysian palm oil industry must be reduced in order to reduce the environmental impact (GHG emission). The main objective of this research is to establish energy benchmarking in Malaysian downstream palm oil industry using product-based energy benchmarking. The method for energy benchmarking consists of four main steps, which is data collection, data analysis, set-up baseline SEC and establishment of industrial energy benchmarking. The data used in this research was obtained from Malaysian Green Technology Corporation. An equation to estimate baseline SEC value has been obtained and energy benchmarking in this industry has been successfully established. Data analysis revealed that the average SEC for this industry is determine to be 2.59 GJ/t and the lowest SEC (0.04 GJ/t) was obtained by Company D while the highest SEC (5.99 GJ/t) is obtained by Company C. Apart from that, the recommendation of no cost, low cost, medium cost and high cost energy saving measures for this industry has been done. Finally, the best practice in this industry has been determined as maximizing the plant utilization rate and implementing ESMs.

A Framework of Solar Thermal Performance Study for Poultry Industry

Malaysia is one of the countries aiming to create sustainable energy by using renewable sources as an alternative to reduce consumption of fossil fuel due to the negative impacts to the environment and public health. Solar energy which is free and abundant in Malaysia can be one of the potential renewable sources of energy to meet the energy demand in Malaysia. Some industries consume energy for low heating process, hence solar thermal has a great potential to fulfill the demand. This paper presents solar thermal performance assessment in poultry industry that obtain the heat energy from scalding tank with temperature between 60 - 70 °C for scalding process for efficient removal of chicken leather. The framework has been demonstrated in PPNJ Poultry & Meat SDN. Bhd. as a case study as it is the first solar thermal incorporated in the industry process in Malaysia. The results reveals that about 88 % of the total energy input for scalding process has been contributed by solar thermal with about 2 % energy loss.

Renewable Energy and Energy Security in Malaysia

Robust economic growth, increasing population and personal consumption are the main drivers for the rapid increase of energy demand in Malaysia. Increasing demand has compounded the issue of national energy security due over-dependence on fossil fuel, depleting indigenous domestic conventional energy resources which in turns has increased the country’s energy import dependence. In order to improve its energy security, Malaysia has seriously embarked on a renewable energy journey. Many initiatives on renewable energy have been introduced in the past decade. These strategies have resulted in the exploding growth of renewable energy deployment in Malaysia. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of renewable energy deployment on energy security. Secondary data was used to calculate the energy security indicators. The study also compared the results of applying different energy security indicators namely Availability, Applicability, Affordability and Acceptability dimension of energy resources. The evaluation shows that Malaysia will experience improvement in Energy Security, particularly on Availability, Affordability and Acceptability dimensions of energy security. This study suggests that energy security level could be further enhance by efficient utilization of energy, reducing carbon content of energy and facilitating low-carbon industries.

Building life cycle analysis toward low carbon emission and energy efficiency

The Malaysian construction industry contributes as an empowerment to the Malaysian economic sector. Even though, the building and construction industry are the key sector for country development, but still they are among the biggest threat to the environment in form of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions. The problem of massive emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the burning of fossil fuels and their climatic impact has become major scientific and political issues. Buildings construction consume huge amount of natural resources and emitted million tons of carbon emission. In fact, Malaysia is one of the top 30 countries for carbon emission in the world. The energy demand in Malaysia has increased dramatically for the last few years. Commercial sector is also responsible for a great amount of CO2 emissions from the energy consumptions. Therefore, one way of reducing energy consumption could be facilitated to the reduction of CO2 emissions in this sector. Actions need to be taken in order to promote sustainable buildings in terms of carbon emission and energy consumption which can lead to significant energy saving in the built environment. Using appropriate thermal insulation can reduce and causes a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by reducing energy consumption. This paper presents an absolute estimation and quantification of embodied and operational carbon emission and investigates the total amount of energy consumption. Results shows that after implementation of sustainable solutions in the case study, operational energy consumption and carbon emission were reduced to a grate extend.

Building Energy Consumption in Malaysia: An Overview

Buildings consume up to 40% of the total global energy. By the year 2030, the consumption is expected to increase to 50%. In Malaysia, buildings consume a total of 48% of the electricity generated in the country. Commercial buildings consume up to 38,645 Giga watts (GWh) while Residential buildings consume 24,709 Gwh. Demand for electricity in the country is expected to rise from 91,539 GWh in the year 2007 to 108,732 GWh in 2011. By the year 2020, the energy demand in Malaysia is expected to reach 116 Million tons of oil equivalents (Mtoe). Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission in the country has increased by 221% ,which lists the nation at 26th among the top 30 greenhouse gas emitters in the world. Literature studies indicate more than 50% of this energy is used in buildings for occupants comfort (air conditioning and refrigeration). Energy consumptions by residential occupants can be minimized if energy usage is considered. This paper aimed at reviewing some literatures on energy consumption in the residential buildings in Malaysia and suggests ways of improving the energy usage by the occupants.

Supply network synthesis on rubber seed oil utilisation as potential biofuel feedstock

This paper describes the synthesis of a rubber seed supply network to support the green energy demand in Malaysia. An optimised rubber seed supply network design, which maximises biomass utilisation, secures local biomass supply as well as reduces material loss and emissions resulted from inefficient logistic activities has been carried out. The utilisation of rubber seed oil (RSO) for biofuel production in Malaysia and its contribution to the national biomass renewable energy portion is forecasted. The supply network of the biomass is synthesised through mixed integer linear programming. Both centralised and de-centralised rubber seed processing facilities are studied. The network model shows that the selection of rubber seed processing plant is highly dependant on the volume of feedstock. A simplified real case study is presented to demonstrate the optimisation model. In addition, biodiesel price is largely dependent on the feedstock market. Thus, comparison of crude palm oil (CPO) and RSO production processes have been made in term of (i) energy and utility consumptions, (ii) feedstock price and (iii) environmental impact. Sensitivity analysis of rubber seed oil price for obtaining optimal blending ratio of rubber seed oil and crude palm oil has been performed in order to determine the market uncertainty of the biodiesel price. The potential of substituting rubber seed oil for crude palm oil as an alternative blending feedstock for biodiesel production has been validated.

Measuring the Effects of World Oil Price Change on Economic Growth and Energy Demand in Malaysia: An ARDL Bound Testing Approach

This paper investigates the effects of world oil price change on economic growth and energy demand in Malaysia by using an ARDL bounds testing co-integration approach. The results revealed that changes in world oil price benefitted the Malaysia's real GDP in the short term. Interestingly, the estimated results showed that energy demand is found to be an oil price inelastic and income elastic of demand, consistently in the short and long run. In addition to that, there was a bidirectional causality effect between energy demand and GDP, which would have important implications for energy policy, where the energy policy may be implemented without convey adverse effects to both energy sector and economy performance. Given the dominant effects of oil price on energy demand and economic growth, this study suggests that policy planner should confer prompt response and choose the right mechanism of energy conservation and fiscal policy, especially to keep environmental friendly with sound macroeconomic balances. Also, in order to retard the fuel import growth, inter fuel substitution towards indigenous resources, mainly green energy resources would be required critically.