Energy use and environmental impact of new alternative fuel mix in electricity generation in Malaysia

The Government of Malaysia introduced a five-fuel diversification strategy in 1999 to ensure security of energy supply. This strategy will continue until 2020 to reduce Malaysia's dependence on fossil fuels for generating electricity. This paper empirically explored the economic impact of electricity generation and scenario analysis that separately identifies impact on the environment of coal, fuel and hydro generating electricity technologies. It also evaluated emissions of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide for the year 1991 and 2000 based on business as usual techniques and projection of those emissions based on business as usual and fuel mix strategy as specified in the fuel diversification strategy. The strategy in the electricity sector aims for a gradual change in fuel use from 74.9 per cent natural gas, 9.7 per cent coal, 10.4 per cent hydro, and 5 per cent petroleum in the year 2000 to 40 per cent natural gas, 30 per cent hydro, 29 per cent coal, and only 1 per cent petroleum by the year 2020. This paper presented the underlying model which is based on input-output techniques. The pollution emission levels from the fossil fuels were estimated. The study revealed that the fuel mix envisioned by the Fuel Diversification Strategy, designed to reduce Malaysia's dependence on fuel oil and increase its energy security would result in an increase in undesired emissions. 16 refs., 5 tabs., 3 figs