Malaysia's energy consumption, primary energy supply both grew 2.8% in 2019 — commission

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 13): Malaysia’s final energy consumption charted a positive growth of 2.8% at 66,483 kilotonne of oil equivalent (ktoe) in 2019, from 64,658 ktoe in the previous year, said the Energy Commission.

This is the fourth consecutive year that the country’s energy consumption recorded a positive growth. It grew 10.4% to 57,219 ktoe in 2016 from 51,829 ktoe in 2015. It then continued to grow to 62,489 ktoe in 2017 and 64,658 ktoe in 2018.

“Among the sectors, the bulk of the energy consumption is from the industry and transport sectors, constituting almost two-third of the total energy consumption in 2019,” said Energy Commission chief executive officer Abdul Razib Dawood.

“This was followed by the non-energy sector (20.5%), commercial (7%), residential (5%) and agriculture sectors (1.4%),” he said in a virtual briefing on Monday.

Abdul Razib said the total primary energy supply also increased by 2.8% to 98,609 ktoe in 2019, from 95,909 ktoe in 2018.

In terms of share of primary energy supply, he said natural gas had the biggest share of 42%, followed by crude oil, petroleum products and others at 33%, coal and coke at 21%, and renewable energy at 4%.

“Energy is one of the main pillars in economic growth. Energy and economic growth go hand in hand. This is the typical trend for a developing country like Malaysia, whereby energy supply and energy demand is still very much coupled with economic growth,” Abdul Razib said.

“Malaysia’s energy consumption will continue to rise as energy become more viable. Nevertheless, we have seen improvement in energy efficiency as observed in the reduction of energy intensity,” he added.

In 2019, electricity intensity fell 0.7% to 0.111 per gigawatt hours/gross domestic product (GWh/GDP) from 0.112 in 2018, which indicates an improvement in efficiency.

“In fact, from 2016 onwards, electricity intensity has shown a reduction for four consecutive years. In a way it means some of our (Energy Commission) initiatives on promoting energy efficiency is working,” Abdul Razib said.

The virtual briefing was held in conjunction with the commission’s National Energy Balance report which is published once every two years.

As the official energy data for Malaysia, the report covers the overall energy system including oil and gas, coal, power, and renewable energy, as well as energy supply and demand, energy reserves, energy capacity, energy prices and energy indicators.

Edited by S Kanagaraju. 

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