Energising Asean's Growth In 2019

New technologies and innovations have spurred digital transformation efforts in the ASEAN power landscape in recent years.

2018 continued to embrace this outlook through a series of significant milestones aimed at developing the region’s digital economy.

From IoT-enabled power plants to a new wave energy park, governments and organizations are exploring innovative ways of tapping into technology to power ASEAN’s surging energy demands. The International Energy Agency predicts that South-East Asia’s energy demand will grow almost two-thirds by 2040 as the region’s economy triples in size.

In 2018, we saw the birth of the ASEAN Smart Cities Network, gearing towards a seismic shift in the region’s power management outlook as cities gear up on technology as the foundation of smart and sustainable urban development.

Rising energy demand, driven primarily by economic growth, industrialization, and urbanization, has long outpaced energy supply in ASEAN. Therefore, the region is diversifying its energy mix to meet growing demands, with aims to increase the proportion of renewable energy to 23 percent of its energy mix by 2025.

This may well be an achievable goal. Regional investments in the renewable energy sector are on the rise, so much so that renewables are expected to be as price competitive as fossil fuels within the next two years. Diversifying the energy mix is becoming a highly viable route.

Amidst this shift to renewables, companies are exploring alternative energy storage systems to regulate the frequency of power grids.