PETALING JAYA, March 12 — Electricity usage reached a new high of 17,175 megawatt (MW) on Wednesday, with Malaysians using air-conditioners and fans throughout the day to fight the heat.

The previous high was 16,901 MW, which was registered on June 6, 2014.

A Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) statement said the public should set their air-conditioners at 23-25 degrees Celcius between 2pm and 5pm to reduce energy consumption.

It attributed the high level of power consumption to the exceptionally dry weather the country has been facing over the past few days.

It said the heat wave was due to the El Nino phenomenon which leads to scorching weather across Asia and east Africa but heavy rain and floods in South America.

The phenomenon occurs every two to seven years.

The statement said the peak consumption threshold per day was 17,000 MW.

“The higher demand for electricity will not have any impact on reliability of power supply as TNB has sufficient electricity generation in place.”

This is because the peninsular’s current installed electricity is 22,220 MW of which 11,818 MW comes from TNB’s own capacity with the balance from independent power producers.

TNB has encouraged customers to adopt the following measures during peak hours to reduce consumption:

― ironing and washing clothes at night;

― boiling water during off-peak hours; and,

― large power users like cement manufacturers and steel millers conducting operations at night.

The Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry said in January that Malaysia would be experiencing warmer weather and reduced rainfall in the first quarter of the year due to the El Nino phenomenon which was expected to end in June.

Rainfall has fallen by between 20 and 60 per cent between January and March.