Page 12 - AsiaElec Week 46

AsiaElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AsiaElec
TRADING
Malaysia’s TNB ponders P2P energy trading
Malaysia’s Tenaga Nasional Bhd is looking at P2P energy trading to absorb excess energy generated by rooftop solar installations in cities
Singapore-based Electrify chief executive officer Martin Lim said TNB was looking to allow consumers, who have passively been paying for electricity, to sell excess energy from their solar panels to anyone else across a city, facilitated by peer-to-peer energy trading platform.
This is in line with the market liberalisation in Malaysia, with the government pushing for with its 10-year masterplan called Malaysia Electricity Supply Industry 2.0.
“As the government targets for sustainable and green energy as well as promotes a more liberalised energy market, the industry in Malaysia is about to experience a technology breakthrough with TNB behind it,” Lim told the New Straits Times.
Electrify has been in talks with TNB to bring its peer-to-peer trading technology, called Synergy which capitalises on solar energy, into Malaysia.
“We have also been talking with TNB about conducting a pilot test on peer-to- peer energy trading platform. It has been supporting us.
“If TNB owns the platform that facilitates the trading of solar energy, it would make
a transaction fee. And it does not have to generate the energy, so there is no cost here,” Lim said, adding that announcement on its collaboration with TNB was expected soon.
Following a successful trial in February this year, Synergy was also scheduled for a larger scale commercial trial in Singapore by the year-end, Lim said.
“About a year and a half ago, we started doing a research on peer-to-peer energy trading platform. We realised that the power grids that we are seeing are evolving and changing very drastically.“
OUTPUT
China’s power generation sees slower growth
China’s power generation rose 4% year on year in October, slower than the 4.7% rate recorded in September, official data showed.
Power generation hit 571.4bn kWh last month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
A breakdown showed that coal-fired electricity generation saw a slower growth
in October, rising 5.9% year on year. Hydroelectricity fell 4.1%, as compared with a drop of 1.1% in September.
Nuclear and solar power both recorded a slower increase of 5.4% and 3%, respectively, while wind power returned to growth, jumping 10% year on year.
In the first 10 months of 2019, power generation increased 3.1% year on year to 5.9 trillion kWh, NBS data showed.
COAL-FIRED GENERATION
Alinta Energy considers early closure of Loy Yang B
Australia’s Alinta Energy is threatening an early closure of one of the country’s biggest coal-fired power stations, a move that is likely to put it on a collision course with the Federal Government.
Jeff Dimery, the chief executive of Alinta, which owns a portfolio of coal and gas generators, told ABC the low cost of renewables would likely make coal obsolete.
But the early closure of power stations has been met with fierce condemnation from the Federal Government.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor recently launched a taskforce to look at all potential impacts of AGL’s closure of the Liddell power station in New South Wales.
“What I see today in terms of reductions in cost structures for emerging technologies, or existing technologies for that matter, gives
me every confidence that despite any policy hiccups or obstacles we see, the commerciality of these technologies will win out,” Dimery said.
He believes the low cost and increasing reliability of renewables mean Alinta’s largest coal-fired power station, Loy Yang B, which supplies around a fifth of Victoria’s energy needs, will close much earlier than its 2048 deadline.
Alinta closed its brown coal-fired Flinders power station in South Australia in 2015, years ahead of its scheduled shut down, because renewables in the state made it “uncommercial” to run.
“I see the same situation arising in Victoria, precisely when that is I don’t have an answer,
I do know that right now it is critical to keep the lights on and keep energy affordable that Loy Yang B does operate, but that may well not be the case, whether that is in 10, 15 or 20 years I can’t be specific but I know it is going to happen.”
NUCLEAR
Japan nuclear plant safety costs increase 5-fold
The estimated cost of safety measures at nuclear power plants across Japan has increased fivefold over the past six years to just over 5.38 trillion yen ($49bn), according ot data from Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun.
Eleven power producers spent the funds to implement stiffened safety standards at
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Week 46 20•November•2019