MAINSTREAMING ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN MALAYSIA

1. "It is ok to do something about EE  but it is also ok not to do anything".That is how I can summarize the attitude about EE as of  now...if not among all Malaysians, at least the majority of them from my personal observations. I am not trying to finger point to anyone or blaming anybody but as a person who has been involved in this field, that would be my general statements to describe the take-up of EE in our country.

Status on Oil & Gas Resources for Malaysia

2. Should we blame the people or organizations? My answer is NO or should we  blame the government? My answer would be NO too at this moment. It is not a one man show here because like any other area that involving people, organizations  and the policy makers, all parties will have to play their  roles in line of their works and life as an individual.The roles that need be defined  and clearly to be made aware among all energy users in Malaysia.

3. At some points in the line of my works in the public sector, I did hear  a few remarks from  high level officials when EE was brought their attention.

 Here are some of those remarks:

i). " If we save energy, what would happen to the higher reserve margin of electricity supply that we have now. TNB would be in trouble if we use less electricity"

ii). " Don't worry. If we increase electricity tariff, automatically people will start  to stop wasting energy"

iii). " EE in not our priority now since we should give more focus on economic development"

Among the ordinary people, the following remarks are quite common too.

i). " We should pay less because we have abundant of our own oil and gas resources"

ii). " It's the government's job to ensure we pay cheap for energy"

iii). " Why should I worry because I  can afford to pay my energy bills"

iv) ." Other countries that have their own oil and gas can have cheap energy price, why shouldn't Malaysia?"

iv). " Petronas keep selling gas and oil  to other countries like Japan. Why don't they keep it low price for Malaysian? Why selling it?"

4. From career point of view, EE field is not one of the most popular choice among job seekers too.Most of the people involved in their works in EE is due to the nature their  existing works that have to deal with EE related matters. For example, if they works in facilities management, EE may be apart of their job scopes to save overall costs. When I started my career, I has tough time to explain even to my friends on what  exactly what I was doing.

I made the decision to be in EE Field

5. At some points, even most our national level policies related to energy do not specify clearly the direction of EE for the country.

6. In summary, below is the summary of key points in my  observations that I  made over the years:

• Initiated and executed by many parties(government,international agencies, NGOs, private sectors)  without any specific and long term policy and legal requirements to be followed. 
• On project basis and no continuation once completed and projects owned by various organizations with their own defined objectives and goals-lacking of long term coordination and collaboration in specific areas. 
• No standards  recognized by the authorities and followed in EE&EC  services, equipment and appliances and no certification system for the competency of EE & EC professionals/practitioners recognized and authorized by the government. 
• Lack of funding sources and confidence to fund EE&EC projects  by financial institutions. 
• Energy price (electricity and fuel) is still being made understood and promoted as among the lowest in the region- create  “cushioned” impact resulted from actual global environment among general public 
• Variety of standards and qualities of services provided by EE & EC services industry- lack of  confidence among interested parties such as high energy users (e.g: high cost charged by EE & EC service providers for energy audits) 
• No urgency among the utility companies due to supply of  electricity is more than demand (big reserve). 
• Bureaucracy issues in the processing procedures in fiscal incentives such as pioneer status, ITA, import duty and sales taxes exemption offered by the government. 
• Lacking of certified competent persons in EE& EC delivery  due to unavailability of national competency program. 
• Many studies on EE & EC  carried out by many foreign government agencies and organizations but not translated into comprehensive long term plan for implementation (UNDP,JICA, DANIDA).

7. From legal points, our current energy related laws are focusing on only on supply and safety issues. On top of that, the decision making structures is very fragmented and many points of intertaces with many parties that are involved at all level of authorities and scopes of duties.

8. For electricity sector alone, there are three federal level agencies namely Economic Planning Unit under the Prime Minister Department, The Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water and Ministry of Finance are involved directly with different level of authorities to decide on matters related to policies such as policies on IPPs. Regulators such as Energy Commission and SEDA are just the implementation agencies  and at some points, almost the same level like IPPs or licensees such as TNB. The diagram below indicates the structure and authorities in electricity sector.

9. Looking at the above points  that I highlighted , it would be almost impossible for EE to find its ways to attract immediate attention of  everyone, even the policy makers.At present mainly is on security of energy supply  while dealing fluctuating energy prices.

10. It is quite well understood that being a developing country, we have to give sufficient focus to build our economy and creating more revenues from all resources that we have to become a developed nation. Can we do it both? Developing our economy using all energy resources that we have and doing it without forgetting the need to use efficiently too. Yes, the  benefits from being efficient cannot be seen up front if we compare it  to the conventional trades that we get paid for what we delivered immediately.For example, when we sell our energy such as gas and oil, we get money that can be used for other purposes. We can see it straight away but the nature of getting something from being efficient energy users is slightly different. The obvious example is, if we managed to save some quantity of energy, we won't get paid but we only pay less for energy bills instead. The money do not come from our front door in like the  incomes from sales  but the fact is when we pay less, it will improve our profit margin  from the overall reduction of operating costs.

11. In simple words, from sales, money will come to us and we can see it  revenue reports that normally being highlighted to all and so on but when we saved money, only a handful of related know about it and most of the time, never intended to be known to others since we have to chase the money that will come from the implementation of energy saving measures.


12. So, finally, how to get attention of people on EE? 

The answer is simple but very challenging too. 

WE NEED TO TREAT ENERGY EFFICIENCY AS AN INDUSTRY because only an industry can attract attention of people to be involved as players when there are economic opportunities to be exploited by everyone.
We have to bring EE intro the main stream route for it to been seen with a clear goals, platform and required supports from all parties.


How to make this happen?


13. Many can answer this nowadays and many can come up with many solutions too. We do not to reinvent the wheel because examples are everywhere around the globe for us to refer and learn. I  believe we have learned a lot for years and know exactly how to be energy efficient users. It is not the issue of the know-how, it is more on the will to do it within the scope of our works and life.

14. There are specifics roles that can be played depending on we come from  what category and levels of people  when it comes to use energy. It ranges from individual users until someone who make strategic decisions at organizational or country level. All of us have roles to play because we just could not do this alone.

We need all hands to "invest" in EE to get significant results

15. It has been my dream for years to see and the benefits of EE can be enjoyed by everyone when it become one of main stream industries such as manufacturing, financial, environment and etc. Hope to share more thoughts in the next posting on what are needed to transform EE to become an industry.