RE as an alternative source of energy in Malaysia is still at premature stage of its development and adoption. This is mainly due to lack of public awareness and participation toward new technology advancement. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to determine and present a proposed theoretical model on the relationship between public participation by measuring their willingness to pay for energy generated from RE resources and its determinants that influenced the willingness to pay level. Awareness on RE, degree of knowledge on RE, willingness to adopt RE technology, environmental concern and attitude toward RE usage are constructed as the five selected determinants. The relationship between the determinants and public participation is illustrated using theoretical framework because it allows the reader to understand how public participation that measured by willingness to pay level are being influenced. Thus, ten hypotheses on the correlation and causal effect between the dependent and independent variables are developed. Quantitative research methods will be used to achieve the research objectives. A questionnaire on 5-point likert scale will be developed and collected from 500 respondents through systematic sampling method at Kiang Valley, Malaysia. Correlation of the variables will be analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 and ordered probit model will be used to measure the causal effect between the variables. These efforts are useful to ensure future success of RE development in Malaysia.

This paper investigates the differences between the impacts of transparency in the US and European Corporate Bond Markets by studying the criticisms of transparency in the US markets from European markets perspective. The study makes two assumptions namely as the level of understanding on transparency in the European market increase; the spreads decrease and the volume of trading do not decrease. Then the study construct a regression on the data sets on all of subset of the European market selected that consists of the average best bid-ask spread (presented in proportional spread) and the number of trading volumes. The results from methodology are giving favorable results or advantages of implementation of transparency that is consistent with the phenomenon experienced by US corporate bond markets. Thus, it can be concluded that it would be optimal to introduce transparency in the markets but with some limited post-trade transparency.

One of Malaysia Electricity Supply Industry (MESI) objectives is to ensure Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) economic viability based on a fair economic electricity pricing. In meeting such objective, a framework that investigates the effect of cost of service (COS) on revenue is in great need. This paper attempts to present a conceptual framework that illustrate the distribution of the COS among TNB's various cost centres which are subsequently redistributed in varying quantities among all of its customer categories. A deep understanding on the concepts will ensure optimal allocation of COS elements between different sub activities of energy production processes can be achieved. However, this optimal allocation needs to be achieved with respect to the imposed TNB revenue constraint. Therefore, the methodology used for this conceptual approach is being modelled into four steps. Firstly, TNB revenue requirement is being examined to ensure the conceptual framework addressed the requirement properly. Secondly, the revenue requirement is unbundled between three major cost centres or business units consist of generation, transmission and distribution and the cost is classified based on demand, energy and customers related charges. Finally, the classified costs are being allocated to different customer categories i.e. Household, Commercial, and Industrial. In summary, this paper proposed a conceptual framework on the cost of specific services that TNB currently charging its customers and served as potential input into the process of developing revised electricity tariff rates. On that purpose, the finding of this COS study finds cost to serve customer varies with the voltage level that customer connected to, the timing and the magnitude of customer demand on the system. This COS conceptual framework could potentially be integrated into a particular tariff structure and serve as a useful tool for TNB.

Implementation of residential Maximum Demand (MD) charges is desirable among utilities and regulators to establish a ratemaking framework that will better reflect the cost of generating and delivering electricity. The objective of this paper is to develop and validate public acceptance on willingness to pay (PAWP) MD charge in Malaysia. The items of this newly developed scale were derived from previous published quantitative studies. Validity and reliability of the PAWP on MD charge were assessed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). 154 respondents participated in this study. Descriptive statistics and EFA were used to determine validity of the PAWP on MD charge. Cronbach's alpha and item analysis verified the reliability of PAWP on MD charge. The determinants of willingness to pay comprised four factors with 30 items for PAWP on MD charge in their monthly electricity bill. Findings from this study indicate that the EFA provide an imperative result that questionnaire such PAWP scales has appropriate and adequate construct validity and reliability to use as a measurement instrument in obtaining the data from target respondents for this study.

In 2009, government of Malaysia has announced a National Renewable Energy Policy and Action Plan as part of their commitment to accelerate the growth in renewable energies (RE). However, an adoption of RE as a main source of energy is still at an early stage due to lack of public awareness and acceptance on RE. Up to date, there are insufficient studies done on the reasons behind this lack of awareness and acceptance. Therefore, this paper is interested to investigate the public acceptance towards development of RE by measuring their willingness to pay slightly more for energy generated from RE sources, denote as willingness level and whether the importance for the electricity to be supplied at absolute lowest possible cost regardless of source and environmental impact, denote as importance level and other socioeconomic factors could improve their willingness level. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used to achieve the research objectives. A total of 164 respondents from local universities in Malaysia participated in a survey to collect this relevant information. Using Ordered Probit model, the study shows that among the relevant socio-economic factors, age seems to be an important factor to influence the willingness level of the respondents. This paper concludes that younger generation are more willing to pay slightly more for energy generated from RE sources as compared to older generation. One of the possible reason may due to better information access by the younger generation on the RE issues and its positive implication to the world. Finding from this paper is useful to help policy maker in designing RE advocacy programs that would be able to secure public participation. These efforts are important to ensure future success of the RE policy.

In 2016, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) had introduced an upgrade in its Billing and Customer Relationship Management (BCRM) as part of its long-term initiative to provide its customers with greater access to billing information. This includes information on real and suggested power consumption by the customers and further details in their billing charges. This information is useful to help TNB customers to gain better understanding on their electricity usage patterns and items involved in their billing charges. Up to date, there are not many studies done to measure public understanding on current electricity bills and whether this understanding could contribute towards positive impacts. The purpose of this paper is to measure public understanding on current TNB electricity bills and whether their satisfaction towards energy-related services, electricity utility services, and their awareness on the amount of electricity consumed by various appliances and equipment in their home could improve this understanding on the electricity bills. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used to achieve these objectives. A total of 160 respondents from local universities in Malaysia participated in a survey used to collect relevant information. Using Ordered Probit model, this paper finds respondents that are highly satisfied with the electricity utility services tend to understand their electricity bills better. The electric utility services include management of electricity bills and the information obtained from utility or non-utility supplier to help consumers manage their energy usage or bills. Based on the results, this paper concludes that the probability to understand the components in the monthly electricity bill increases as respondents are more satisfied with their electric utility services and are more capable to value the energy-related services.

In 2010, Energy Commission (EC) had introduced Incentive Based Regulation (IBR) to ensure sustainable Malaysian Electricity Supply Industry (MESI), promotes transparent and fair returns, encourage maximum efficiency and maintains policy driven end user tariff. To cater such revolutionary transformation, a sophisticated system to generate policy driven electricity tariff structure is in great need. Hence, this study presents a data analytics framework that generates altered revenue function based on varying power consumption distribution and tariff charge function. For the purpose of this study, the power consumption distribution is being proxy using proportion of household consumption and electricity consumed in KwH and the tariff charge function is being proxy using three-tiered increasing block tariff (IBT). The altered revenue function is useful to give an indication on whether any changes in the power consumption distribution and tariff charges will give positive or negative impact to the economy. The methodology used for this framework begins by defining the revenue to be a function of power consumption distribution and tariff charge function. Then, the proportion of household consumption and tariff charge function is derived within certain interval of electricity power. Any changes in those proportion are conjectured to contribute towards changes in revenue function. Thus, these changes can potentially give an indication on whether the changes in power consumption distribution and tariff charge function are giving positive or negative impact on TNB revenue. Based on the finding of this study, major changes on tariff charge function seems to affect altered revenue function more than power consumption distribution. However, the paper concludes that power consumption distribution and tariff charge function can influence TNB revenue to some great extent.

Maximum demand (MD) is a peak load contributed by the customer to TNB system at any point in time. MD charge is important to ensure that customers is paying a fair share on the burden that they place on the electric grid. Currently, the MD charge is only being imposed on Commercial and Industrial customers. In order to achieve economic viability, electricity price should be cost-reflective. This means the MD charge should be paid by all electricity customers including the domestic sector. It is the purpose of this study to investigate if the MD charge eventually need to be paid, how willing are the public to pay market reflective energy pricing with an addition of MD charge in their electricity bill. Hence, this study aims to evaluate the relationship between determinants such as understanding of electricity bills, understanding of electricity pricing, awareness on amount electricity consumption, socio-economic.factors and public affordability on, the public willingness to pay for the MD charges using a proposed theoretical framework. For data collection purpose, a questionnaire on 5-point Likert scale will be developed and data will be collected from 50 random respondents from peninsular Malaysia. The study developed ten hypotheses that is used to validate the relationship between willingness to pay MD charge and its determinants Correlation will be analyzed

Many market participants in Australia Electricity Market had cast doubts on whether the pre-dispatch process in the electricity market is able to give them good and timely quantity and price information. In a study by [11], they observed a significant bias (mainly indicating that the pre-dispatch process tends to underestimate spot price outcomes), a seasonality features of the bias across seasons and/or trading periods and changes in bias across the years in our sample period (1999 to 2007). In a formal setting of an ordered probit model we establish that there are some exogenous variables that are able to explain increased probabilities of over-or under-predictions of the spot price. It transpires that meteorological data, expected pre-dispatch prices and information on past over-and under-predictions contribute significantly to explaining variation in the probabilities for over-and under-predictions. The results allow us to conjecture that some of the bids and re-bids provided by electricity generators are not made in good faith.

There are still limited numbers of studies on existing measures of public participation towards RE development in Malaysia. The developments of the measurement for assessing public participation also seem to require some extent of revalidation. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the factor structure of public participation that measured by willingness to pay level and it determinants that influence the public willingness to pay. The items of this developed scale were derived from previous published quantitative study. Validity and reliability of the instruments were assessed with EFA. One hundred and seventy two public had participated in this study. Results from this exploratory study revealed that the originally validated form of every factor structure (Willingness to pay (WTP), Awareness on RE (ARE), Knowledge on RE (KRE), Willingness to adopt RE technology (WTA) and Attitude towards RE usage (AURE)) except for Environmental concern (EC) did not, perform as per previous literatures within this research context. Therefore, a total of 16-items revised in public participation toward RE measurement might be better suited for use within the selected population. However, all the revised factor structure of WTP, ARE, KRE, WTA, EC and AURE had a good reliability measured by the following Cronbach's Alpha, alpha(WTP) = 0.897, alpha(ARE) = 0.932, alpha(KRE) = 0.833, alpha(WTA) = 0.901, alpha(EC) = 0.914 and alpha(AURE) = 0.826. This information provides preliminary evidence that the public participation towards RE instrument is a reliable and a valid measure that can be used to provide the data regarding RE development in Malaysia. However, this study sample size maybe viewed as relatively small, thus, future study should cross validate the results by engaging larger sample size.