Roundtable Executive Report – Power Sector Integration in Southeast Asia

The International Energy Agency (IEA) organised a roundtable at Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) 2016 to discuss how ASEAN member countries can develop appropriate regional institutions and leverage advances in grid technologies to support regional power sector integration and interconnection.

Michael Waldron, Investment Specialist at the IEA kicked-off the roundtable session with a presentation on the latest findings from the IEA World Energy Investment and Medium Term Renewable Energy Market reports. Waldron highlighted trends in clean energy investment and drivers and challenges for the scale up of renewables regionally and at the global level.

Kian Min Low, Senior Vice President at Sembcorp Industries provided his views on financing for power generation in the region and business model drivers for investment. Low focused on the increased installation of renewables and the challenges faced providing 24/7 delivery of power. He highlighted the difficulty in financing coal projects in ASEAN following the OECD announcements to stop public funding for coal-fired generation. He said a balance needs to be struck between economically cheaper and reliable coal-fired generation with increased CO2, versus cleaner but more expensive technologies. He added that some emerging economies may not be able to afford newer and more expensive gas technology, lack the transmission capability to deliver power as well as the ability to deal with intermittent loads due to renewables.

The panel discussion highlighted the challenges for investments in clean coal technologies and carbon capture and storage (CCS). The panelists underlined the need for ways to improve financing rates for renewables and debated on the types of R&D investment needed to support power sector integration.

The roundtable session also addressed the development of regional institutions to underpin and steer integration. Matthew Wittenstein, Electricity Sector Analyst at the IEA, pointed out the drivers of regional integration and the key role that regulators play in aiding in the development of secure, sustainable, and affordable power systems. He highlighted some of the key issues that regulators must balance given their importance at both a domestic and regional level, and described various models for regional regulatory institutions employed around the world. This was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr Phyllis Yoshida of Sasakawa Peace Foundation, which included Beni Suryadi of the ASEAN Centre for Energy and Anton Finenko of the Energy Studies Institute. The panel tackled the question of how to specifically integrate ASEAN power systems, and opportunities for further progress.

Roundtable participants:

• Low Kian Min, Senior Vice President, Group Business Development & Commercial, Utilities, Sembcorp Industries

• Beni Suryadi, Senior Research Analyst, Research Analysis Programme (PRAP), ASEAN Centre for Energy

• Michael Waldron, Energy Investment Analyst, Economics and Investment Office, IEA

• Matthew Wittenstein, Electricity Sector Analyst, Gas, Coal and Power Markets Division, IEA

• Anton Finenko, Research Associate, Energy Studies Institute, National University of Singapore

• Dr Phyllis Yoshida, Fellow for Energy & Technology, Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA

By :International Energy Agency