National Energy Grid
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Full Size Map National Electricity Transmission Grid of Malaysia(72 kb) |
GRID SUMMARY
Malaysia currently has approximately 13 gigawatts (GW) of electric generation capacity, of which 84% is thermal and 16% is hydroelectric. In 2000, Malaysia generated around 63 billion kilowatthours of electricity. The Malaysian government expects that investment of $9.7 billion will be required in the electric utility sector through 2010. Much of that amount will be for coal-fired plants, as the Malaysian government is promoting a shift away from the country's heavy reliance on natural gas for electric power generation.
In recent developments, Tenaga Nasional Bhd, the main state-owned utility, began in 1999 to divest some of its power generation units. Eventually, Malaysia expects to achieve a fully competitive power market, with generation, transmission, and distribution decoupled, but reform is still at an early stage and the exact process of the transition to a competitive market has not been decided. The issue is still under study, and many observers have voiced caution in light of the experiences of other deregulated utility systems.