MALAYSIA is on an energy efficiency journey. We saw a sign of this on Friday when the government removed power rebates for 1.2 million households whose electricity bills topped RM220.
This is a very small step because even with the rebate gone, the subsidy will be a substantial RM1.9 billion. The government must find a permanent solution to keep watts down in the homes of consumers. But they are certainly not the only ones who may be inefficient in using electricity.
Four sectors — industry, transport, commercial and residential buildings —- use the bulk of energy produced, estimated to amount to 80 per cent. Of these, buildings alone guzzle 13 per cent of the country's energy. Somewhere there lies the permanent solution. The government seems to be getting there, but somewhat slowly. Understandably, money dictates time.
But before the government arrives at a permanent solution, there is a very cheap alternative: ending wastage. According to Worlddata.info, a data portal, Malaysia consumed 150.06 billion kilowatts per hour per year of electric power in 2021 or an average of 4,443 per capita. There is still plenty of waste in these numbers.
Happily, Malaysia produced 163 billion kilowatts per hour of electric power in that year. It may not always be so. Two things stand in the way of reducing inefficient use of energy.
One is the fact that most buildings – commercial, government and residential – are old and therefore weren't built with energy efficiency in mind. As for the government buildings, retrofit is in the works.
One media report placed the cost at RM2 billion to get energy inefficient public buildings up to mark by 2030. A similar retrofit job is needed for old commercial buildings. There are no cost estimates available for such aged premises, but may prove to be substantial.
Some companies may be able to afford it, some may not. But there are substantial savings in electricity bills to be made in the long run. Not all homeowners would be able to foot the retrofit bill, but at least with the help of technology and a tweak here and there in their habits, they can keep their homes lit and cooled at a lower cost.
The most sustainable solution is to get developers to build energy efficient buildings aka green buildings — commercial and residential. Here is some local data. According to Samulel Tan of KGV International Property Consultants, who spoke to this newspaper recently, such green buildings can save between 25 and 50 per cent of energy, between 10 per cent and 40 per cent of water consumption, and reduce maintenance costs by about 12 per cent. Yet not many are being built now. The reasons are aplenty. Three will suffice to paint the picture of slow progress.
One, there aren't enough sources of renewable energy in the country for developers to build green buildings. Two, there are too many authorities from whom a go-ahead is required before a project can progress from concept to construction, especially commercial buildings. Three, not all developers have the capital to build them. And those who have the capital are waiting for the government to urge them on with incentives. With the cost of energy becoming prohibitive, such an urge or a nudge is now necessary. If the government wants powerful savings that is.