BILLIONS of consumer's money saved IF ONLY Umno-BN implemented proper policies

The recent steep electricity tariff increase has led many Malaysians in shock and worried about the cost implication for goods and services with the full impact of tariff increase can be seen clearly in February bills, Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia (AWER) president S. Piarapakaran said.

He said similarly the current policies for energy efficiency did not give direct benefit for all level of consumers to reduce their electricity consumption either.

In a statement Feb 11, Piarapakaran said AWER had conducted a thorough research in energy efficiency implementation for domestic sector and across sectors on establishing a proper mechanism to ensure implementation of energy efficiency policies that would bring value for money and improve environmental performances.

"It was a part of sustainable production and consumption project funded by British High Commission, Kuala Lumpur and the UK Government," he said.

He said based on the 2009 Energy Commission report, a total of 90838 GigaWatthour(GWh) of electricity was sold in Malaysia.

The domestic sector he said accounted almost 20 percent of the overall consumption and emits 12.17 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

"Therefore, a 20 percent increase in energy efficiency in domestic sector will be able to reduce more than 36.33 million tonnes of CO2 and save RM 42.06 Billion between year 2025 and 2030 if non-energy efficient products are phased-out completely from Malaysian market by year 2020," he said.

Labelling

He said the savings did not include the overriding savings from commercial and industrial sectors that uses many products that are used by domestic consumers in their operations namely, air conditioners, multimedia equipments, kettles and  refrigerator.

He said AWER's estimations were based on a very conservative projection and the actual savings can be seen from the beginning of the policy's implementations and the overall result might reach 2 to 3 times of the estimated savings.

He said a conclusion from the study include that the government needed to get competent and bigger workforce to manage Demand Side Management(Energy Efficiency) within the existing operation of Energy Commission.

He said the country also in dire need for a Minimum Energy Performance Standard (MEPS).

"MEPS is regarded as the fastest and cost effective tool to weed out non-energy efficient products in the market," he said.

The study too he said, concluded that label is one of the important elements in summarising a product's information for consumers.

"Accurate information will assist consumers to choose and use products wisely," he said.

Other findings from the report include the training and education needed for suppliers and retailers and the management of schedule waste and E-waste. - Harakahdaily