This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on October 8, 2018 - October 14, 2018
THE country’s utility corporation Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) — on behalf of the Association of the Electricity Supply Industry of East Asia and Western Pacific — recently organised a three-day Conference of Electric Power Supply Industry 2018 (Cepsi 2018) which proved to be a roaring success as some 2,000 or more delegates converged at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre to mark the occasion.
TNB last organised this prestigious event in 1996 which was a great platform for everyone in the electricity supply industry (ESI) to come together with ideas exchanged, new friendships built and existing partnerships strengthened.
Likewise, this 22nd Cepsi 2018 enabled the delegates to end their three-day conference with many positive takeaways especially on how they could reimagine the ESI in accordance with Cepsi 2018’s theme of “Reimagining Utility of the Future” — where many thought leaders shared their views on how the industry will be shaping out in the next 10 to 20 years.
Transformation and alliances
The theme underpinned the current reality of how the electric supply industry is transforming in response to acceleration of technology disruptions, economic shifts, evolving sustainability and regulatory requirements and increasing customer expectations.
The discussion topics were sustainability, energy trilemma, emerging megatrends, disruptive technologies, digitalisation and a smarter future.
The theme that struck a chord for many to ponder over was the eventual greater convergence of the power and telecommunication industries — because both of these heavily-networked utilities had much in common.
Many pointed out the significant cost savings that these two industries would reap if they were to earnestly discuss what could be shared and how best they should move forward together for the benefit of consumers and their bottom line.
Some speakers at the conference surmised that such leading-edge or even common sense collaborations had already taken place in some parts of the world and both the residential and business communities there were benefiting from such synergies.
During the keynote session on “ESI Innovation and Smart Solutions”, both Accenture Digital (Asean) managing director James Chong and Nokia global vice-president of energy segment Kamal Ballout shared the view that alliances between power and telecommunication companies (telcos) would be the way to move forward.
They believed that while lowering costs was part of the process, utilities would have to be mindful of additional services they will undertake to ensure revenue did not diminish with technology advancement.
“Power companies and telcos should explore areas where they can draw in more businesses through the internet of things with other service providers so that synergies formed could be translated into better benefits for the development of cities and their residents,” the duo said.
Further, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd chief technology officer Paul Scanlan said power and telcos would likely enter into more discussions to determine synergies on how to work together for the benefit of consumers in the future.
Scanlan cited the case of the installation of a telecommunication base station which needed input from both telcos and power utilities, and that “if both of these can work together, installation costs will be brought down which in turn, would benefit consumers.
“That being the case, there is much room for these two networked industries to work together, coordinated by regulators,” he said during his presentation.
TNB and the telco industry
Taking cues on the future collaboration between TNB and the telco industry, Scanlan said it would make good business sense as the utility company already had an extensive infrastructure of the cable network.
“It was always good to see competition as it will benefit consumers in the long-run. In the final analysis, it will depend on how TNB uses its existing infrastructure and available technologies to move into the telco space,” he explained.
“Another positive area for TNB would be the installation of smart meters,” Scanlan said.
“TNB is in the midst of installing 310,000 smart meters in Melaka. The project, which commenced this year, is expected to reach 8.8 million users in Peninsular Malaysia,” said TNB president and CEO Datuk Seri Azman Mohd.
Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) and Manila Electric Company (Meralco) both indicated and displayed how smart meters had been smart choices for themselves and their customers.
Tepco Power Grid Inc executive vice-president Dr Hiroshi Okamoto said the power generation and distribution firm had successfully installed 17 million smart meters for its residential customers using three different technologies — a wireless (radio frequency) mesh network, a server (wireless star) network and power line communication.
“Very few of our (Tepco) customers refused to install smart meters because of radio frequency emission concerns. So, we do not see any issue in deploying 29 million smart meters for all its residential customers by 2020,” he shared.
Meralco chief technology adviser Gavin D Barfield in his presentation pushed for smart meters as it enables price-conscious consumers to better monitor their power usage.
“These meters, especially pre-paid types, also facilitated consumers in paying their utility bills at local stores that sold credit top-ups or loading services when they run out of credit.”
Barfield said smart meters allows the reduction of electricity thefts from nearby power lines in the slum areas of Manila as the dwellers are prepared to pay for power usage themselves in accordance with their needs.
The CEPSI 2018 event kickstarted with an opening address by Energy, Science, Technology, Environment, and Climate Change Minister Yeo Bee Yin, who said that the ministry would reactivate the Malaysia Programme Office for Power Electricity Reform (MyPower) agency to drive the Malaysia Electricity Supply Industry reform initiative 2.0 (MESI 2.0).
To that, Azman said the group would work closely with MyPower to contribute to the reforms with its vast experience in the sector.
“Changes in the electricity generation industry in Malaysia are expected with the implementation of MESI 2.0, and TNB is ready to embrace the industry reform that was rapidly changing by the day compared with 20 years ago,” he said.
Following a special address from Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, TNB was better equipped with the knowledge that the government would not be pursuing nuclear energy as an option going forward.
“As such, TNB would need to imagine what the road ahead will be in terms of efficiency, power and convergence, as well as meeting customer demands from the availability of leading-edge solutions for the next decade or longer,” Azman said.
Mega presence
At the same time, the attendees were captivated by more than 100 exhibitor booths — many of which were global power utility, telecommunication and technology companies — featuring global power utility, telecommunication and technology companies including Siemens Malaysia Sdn Bhd, ABB Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Huawei Technologies (M) Sdn Bhd, Accenture Infrastructure Services, Shell Malaysia Trading Sdn Bhd, Nokia Solutions and Networks and Voith Hydro.
The exhibition attracted about 4,586 foreign and local trade visitors mainly from the energy utility sector as well as those who wanted to get more information about the latest technological developments.
The exhibitions opened up opportunities for TNB vendors and bumiputera contractors to showcase their businesses, services and products.
Four exhibitors — Korea Electric Power Corp (Kepco), PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (Persero) from Indonesia, Singapore Power Group and IHI Corp from Japan — received special awards from TNB for their exhibitions which was presented by TNB’s chief corporate officer Datuk Wira Roslan Ab Rahman.
The Edge is the media partner for CEPSI 2018
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