Malaysia's Tenaga to double coal imports
Wednesday, December 8 2004 - 04:11 AM WIB
?Tenaga has to spread its fuel mix around so that we will not be overly dependant on medium fuel oil and gas. We will source coal mainly from Indonesia, Australia and South Africa,? Tenaga president and chief executive officer Datuk Che Khalib Mohamad Noh told reporters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
He said this on the sidelines of an international energy conference and exhibition on ?Coal for Regional Development? launched by Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Lim Keng Yaik.
Malaysia has an installed electricity generation capacity of 19,000 megawatts (MW), of which 87 percent is thermal and 13 percent hydroelectric.
Currently, there is an over reliance on the use of gas in Malaysia where about 65 percent of the electricity generated is dependent on natural gas and 25 percent on coal.
Malaysia spent a cool RM1.2 billion (US$ = RM3.8) to purchase some eight million tons of coal this year and by 2009 when demand tips 19 million tons, it is expected to pay a whopping RM3 billion.
Malaysia buys 60 percent of its coal from Australia, Indonesia (30 percent) and 5 percent each from China and South Africa. It has an estimated 1 billion tons of coal reserves mainly in Sarawak and Sabah but they are of low quality.
In 2003, 70 percent of domestic sales of coal were directed to the power sector. Currently, about 99 percent of coal consumption is for electricity generation and the cement industry.
Existing coal-fired plants owned by Tenaga are the 2,400MW Kapar Power Plant in Selangor which was commissioned in 1988-1999 and the Janamanjung Plant (2,100MW) in Perak commisioned last year.
In the next six years, two coal-fired plants will be built by independent power producers (IPPs), namely the Jimah power plant in Negri Sembilan and the Tanjung Bin plant in Johor. (alex)