Power demand pushed to highest due to heatwave

KUALA LUMPUR: The hot and dry spell in the past few days has pushed electricity consumption to its highest in peninsular Malaysia, with Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) recording an all-time high peak demand of 17,175MW on March 9.

The heatwave, due to the El Nino weather phenomenon, has seen the consumer demand for energy climbing since Monday, breaching the 17,000MW peak demand threshold.

The electricity usage broke the previous record in peak demand of 16,901MW registered on June 6, 2014.

Nonetheless, TNB said it had sufficient electricity generation in place and the higher demand projected would not have any impact on the reliability of power supply.

The current totalled installed capacity in peninsular Malaysia stood at 22,220MW, out of which 11,818MW is TNB’s own capacity while the balance is the total installed capacity of the independent power producers.

In line with the Government’s call for efficient use of energy, electricity customers are encouraged to adopt the following measures during peak hours of energy consumption (2pm to 5pm):

> Setting air conditioners at 23°C to 25°C.

> Ironing and washing clothes at night.

> Boiling water during off peak hours.

> Operating their machines or factories at night (large power users like cement manufacturers and steel millers).