Plans under APAEC 2016-2025-
Under the ASEAN Plans of Action for Energy Co-operation (APAEC) 2016-2025 with the theme “Enhancing Energy Connectivity and Market Integration in Association of Southeast Nations [ASEAN] to Achieve Energy Security, Accessibility, Affordability and Sustainability for All”, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) calls for a well-connected ASEAN to drive an integrated, competitive and resilient region. Energy infrastructure is one of the main factors for energy development in the region because of its direct impact on energy connectivity and energy market integration.
Based on its definition, energy infrastructure comprises many components such as the physical network of pipes for oil and natural gas, electricity transmission lines, other tools to transport energy to consumers, including facilities that turn raw natural resources into useful energy products such as the rail network, truck lines, and marine transportation. Under the APAEC 2016-2025, energy infrastructure in ASEAN covers two main energy transport components: a gas infrastructure called the Trans-ASEAN Gas Pipeline, and a power infrastructure called the ASEAN Power Grid (APG). This article looks at the current status of energy infrastructure in ASEAN’s power sector.
The main energy infrastructure in ASEAN’s power sector is power plants. In 2014, 76 per cent of the total power capacity in ASEAN was generated by fossil fuels, of which oil-based, coal-based and natural gas-based power plants reached 15.75 GW, 55.36 GW and 75.67 GW respectively. To mitigate climate change issues, ASEAN member states (AMS) nowadays prefer to build more lower emission fossil fuel-based plants (natural gas power plants and high-efficiency coal power plants), than high emission fossil fuel-based plants (oil). As shown in the 2004-14 data, there was a decline in the percentage of oil-based power plants, from 15 per cent in 2004 to only 8 per cent in 2014, while the percentage of coal- and renewables-based plants increased from 19 per cent to 29 per cent and 17 per cent to 24 per cent respectively. Among all AMS, the largest contributors of coal power in 2014 were Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, while Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand were the largest contributors of natural gas.
By 2015, the total installed capacity of ASEAN rose to 206,818.45 MW from only 90,598 MW in 2004, or equal to an annual growth rate of 7.75 per cent for the last 11 years. With that amount of capacity, the recorded total power generated in ASEAN by 2015 was 915,579 GWh as against 856,279 GWh in 2014. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam are the top five member states that account for 87 per cent of the total power capacity in ASEAN. Singapore and the rest of AMS contributed only 6 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.
The other energy major infrastructure for the power sector is the transmission and distribution (T&D) system. In 2015, the recorded total transmission lines in ASEAN were 230,987 km; the substation capacity reached 425,222 MVA. Each member state has its own losses in its T&D lines. The highest T&D losses were recorded in Myanmar at 19 per cent, followed by Brunei Darussalam at 14 per cent, while the lowest losses were experienced by Thailand at 1.61 per cent.
In the long term, all AMS are expected to develop and enhance their energy infrastructure. One of the activities laid out in the APAEC 2016-2025 is to continue the implementation of cross-border interconnection and the development of the first multilateral connection, namely the Lao PDR-Thailand-Malaysia grid connection. The main objective is to support the APG under the APAEC 2016-2025 and to initiate multilateral electricity trade in at least one sub-region by 2018. Furthermore, investment is also an important element in achieving APAEC targets for renewable energy (23 per cent in the regional energy mix),, which will require $27 billion of annual investment in ASEAN (1 per cent of the region’s GDP) or $290 billion in total by 2025, with 75 per cent of it allocated exclusively for the power sector. In conclusion, ASEAN is one of most prospective regions for energy infrastructure investments and for power market development.
Aloysius Damar Pranadi is a technical officer for Policy Research and Analytics programme in the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE), Jakarta, Indonesia. He has been working with ACE since May 2016. He received his bachelor of engineering in 2015 from the Department of Engineering Physics, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. He started his career in the energy sector as a junior renewable energy engineer/analyst at Energi Bersih Indonesia Foundation for the twin projects of Solar Water Pumping System in Rural Areas funded by the Alstom Foundation in 2014-15 and the ICCTF in 2015-16. In his two years of experience, Pranadi has published some articles and conference papers, and contributed to social projects in energy and to regional studies/research published by ACE. His interests include energy policy, energy research, renewable energy, geothermal energy, thermodynamics and socio-energy.
