ACEC co-organizes its first public event on “Accelerating Power Grid Interconnectivity in Southeast Asia”
On August 25, Asia Clean Energy Coalition (ACEC), in partnership with the Southeast Asia Energy Transition Partnerships (ETP), co-organized a parallel session on “Accelerating Power Grid Interconnectivity in Southeast Asia: Enhancing Cooperation with Partners in ASEAN” at the ASEAN Energy Business Forum (AEBF) in Bali.
This first public event that ACEC has co-sponsored and convened publicly provided a valuable platform for participants to deepen engagement on the emerging and critical topic of regional interconnectivity to continue scaling decarbonization efforts, through its two panel sessions and a workshop.
Many of the benefits of an enhanced ASEAN Power Grid (APG) have been widely recognized by ASEAN and other multilateral institutions with specific emphasis on energy security, efficient power procurement, renewable energy integration and cost-effective emissions reductions.
To shed light on the importance of APG for creating an enabling environment for businesses to drive economic growth and decarbonization, a half-day parallel session took place during the second day of AEBF to provide an opportunity for voices from the private sector, represented by ACEC, alongside ETP and others, to relay to the wider ASEAN community the need to accelerate APG implementation and provide further insights to the planned MOU renewal process for the APG.
The session began with opening remarks from John Cotton, Senior Program Manager of ETP and Suji Kang, Asia Program Director of ACEC followed by a presentation by Dr. Jenni Chen, Senior Manager of World Resources Institute. Chen emphasized that regional power system integration is a critical enabler to deliver on both private sector and country clean energy targets and discussed how a clean, cost-effective and secure power grid can facilitate global competitiveness for both ASEAN and private sector companies.
Discussions on the progress of the ASEAN Power Grid and the potential bottlenecks that will need to be addressed to ensure successful implementation of the regional power grid were held during the first panel session moderated by Sascha Oppowa, Project Director, CASE for Southeast Asia, with insights shared by four panels from ASEAN Center for Energy (ACE), TransitionZero, I-REC and ACEC.
The second panel session addressed the challenges and opportunities to establish a successful regional power trading system and identified actionable plans to realize goals. The discussion was led by five panels from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, ADB, Sarawak Energy, USAID and IEA and moderated by Aang Darmawan, Country Coordinator, ETP.
A workshop was then held with interactive discussions on a staged roadmap and financing framework for the ASEAN Power Grid implementation under a multilateral power trading arrangement, with representation from ACEC members Google, Meta and Amazon.
Through this event, ACEC demonstrated its strong commitment and continued effort to contribute to a renewed MOU that strengthens member states’ commitment towards accelerating an integrated regional power network and market that can facilitate the deployment of clean energy.
