Another operational issue is that the
plants are not fully exploiting the thermal
energy storage system’s potential and
thereby enhancing plant productivity.
This is due to insufficient thermal storage
capacity, a situation that would require
additional investment to improve. The
available excess heat and the low tariff
offered during off-peak periods are not
currently being optimized.
In the case of the university plant,
for example, chilled-water production
was scheduled based on weekdays and
weekends. The fluctuations of demand
within weekdays were not considered
in scheduling chilled-water generation;
however, this could be overcome by
knowing the client’s exact chilled-water
demand pattern.
The university’s electricity and chilled-water requirements vary quiet substantially
throughout the year due to temperature
fluctuations in the environment, which
range from 26 C ( 79 F) to 36 C (97 F). In
addition, electricity and chilled-water
demand fluctuates with the various university holidays. The operators do not
have any specific approach to address
these fluctuating requirements besides
importing emergency requirements from
TNB, something that cannot be predicted.
This has increased operating costs, which
in some cases are passed on to clients.
Industry Outlook
The transfer of operations and
maintenance functions of the seven gas
district cooling and cogeneration plants
to private operators has opened up the
industry to more private-sector participation. The opportunity exists for the
expansion of district cooling and cogeneration plants, as many installations are
generating waste heat and low off-peak
electricity tariff rates and investment
tax incentives by the government are
available. At the University Technology
Petronas plant, for example, there are plans
to expand electricity capacity from 8. 4 MW
to 34 MW and chilled-water capacity to
18,750 tons from the current 5,000 tons.
On a cautionary note, the use of gas
as the main fuel for generation might not
be attractive in the future. This is because
the current gas price for power producers
is subsidized by Petronas at 6. 40 ringgits
($1.97) per MMBtu. The operation cost
will increase if this subsidized price is
increased to 14. 31 ringgits ($4.40) per
MMBtu as proposed. In addition, the gas
lines do not cover all of Malaysia; they
are available to selected regions only –
the coastal areas of Peninsular Malaysia
extending from Kerteh, Kuantan, Segamat,
Johor Bahru, Malacca, Selangor, Perak and
Kedah. Currently, there is no definite plan
to extend the lines.
On the positive side, cogeneration
using renewable fuels, such as biomass,
is encouraged by Malaysian government’s
policy to promote the utilization of
renewable energy resources under the
Ninth Malaysian Plan (2006-2010). This
policy is an extension of the government’s
Eighth Malaysian Plan (2001-2005). The
policy’s objective is to minimize the
negative impact of energy production on
the environment. Given the availability
of waste heat from industry, low tariff
rate for off-peak electricity, government
investment tax incentives, the future of
cogeneration using renewable fuels, and
an increasing demand for air conditioning,
the future of district cooling and cogeneration projects in Malaysia is commercially viable.
Mohd Amin Bin Abdul Majid
Majid is associate professor in the
mechanical engineering department
of University Technology Petronas,
Malaysia, and a fellow of the
Institution of Engineers, Malaysia.
Previously he was managing director of TNB
Workshop Services Sdn. Bhd.; technical consultant for Perusahaan Otomobil Electric Malaysia;
and a consultant for many mechanical projects
and senior research officer/assistant director
engineering with SIRIM (Standard Bureau of
Malaysia). His background includes consulting,
research and writing on gas district cooling,
cogeneration and thermal energy storage as
well as the machine tools industry, processing
machineries and manufacturing. He holds a
doctorate degree from the Universiti Malaya,
Malaysia. He can be reached by email at
mamin_amajid@petronas.com.my.
Syed Ihtsham-ul-Haq Gilani
has been a senior lecturer in the
mechanical engineering department
of University Technology Petronas
since 2003. With more than 14
years of industrial experience in
mechanical component/system designing, he
has authored more than 19 research publications in the areas of energy, gas district cooling
and cogeneration, and more. He received his
doctor of philosophy degree in 1992 from Birmingham University, UK, in the area of energy
monitoring and assessment. He can be contacted
at syedihtsham@petronas.com.my.
Chalilullah Rangkuti is associate
professor and the leader of the
Energy System Cluster in the mechanical engineering department at
University Technology Petronas.
Before coming to the university
in 2001, he was a professor at the Universitas
Sumatera Utara and the rector of the Sekolah
Tinggi Teknik Harapan in Medan, Indonesia.
He has done consulting and research on energy
and environmental impact monitoring for many
years. His current academic research is focused
on energy and utility systems, operation and
optimization within gas district cooling, and
alternative fuels. He earned his doctorate from
the University of Leeds, UK, specializing in internal
combustion engines. His email address is
chalilullah@petronas.com.my.
Reflections from
David Stoppenbrink
Director of Operations
Northwind Phoenix
“I believe the most significant change
in the district energy industry in the
past 10 years is the technology available
today: computer speed, memory,
automation and fiber communication
capabilities are tremendous. And can
you imagine an operator from 50 years
ago walking into one of our plants
today? We currently operate nine plants
in the Northwind TM Phoenix system –
four of them remotely that are unmanned
16 hours a day – from a central control
room. High-speed fiber communication
allows us to import live digital video
feeds as well as real-time computer
operation screens that let the operators
feel like they are right there. It looks like
in the next couple of years all this technology could even be wireless. We’ve
gotten many of our operations ideas
from fellow IDEA members – and we
hope they’ll learn from us too. The great
thing about the IDEA is we can all share
our successes and failures to help each
other use best practices.”
