Jakarta, 17 November 2023: The role of the ASEAN Power Grid (APG) in decarbonising ASEAN's power sector was the topic of discussion at the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) pre-workshop, held by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) on 17 November. Attended by experts from multiple sectors related to the APG system, the aim of the workshop was to understand the APG initiative and AZEC activities, and discover possible future cooperation in all related projects.

ERIA's Chief Operating Officer Koji Hachiyama opened with remarks on ERIA’s commitment to contributing to AZEC principles and activities as well as study in APG. Shinichi Kihara, Director-General for Energy and Environmental Policy, Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) at Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), in his keynote speech, outlined AZEC's progress in supporting ASEAN countries' decarbonisation efforts through providing assistance in developing roadmaps and long-term strategies, the demonstration and deployment of decarbonisation technologies, and the establishment of Asia Transition Finance initiatives.

Iman, representing Heads of the ASEAN Power Utilities/Authorities (HAPUA), outlined APG's  achievements and present and future strategies, highlighting the ASEAN Interconnection Masterplan Study (AIMS) III and the ASEAN Plan of Action and Energy Cooperation (APAEC) Phase II.

The discussion was enriched by the perspectives of countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Pramudia, from Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR); Somsanith Sadettan from Electricite Du Laos; and Suhanee Sutree Chit from Tenaga Nasional Berhad Malaysia, spoke of their respective targets and strategies toward achieving clean and advanced power generation, as well as issues in implementing integrated interconnection in the region.

HAPUA's technical and non-technical challenges supporting APG were clearly noted, and Dr Nuki Agya Utama, Executive Director of the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE), said there have been many discussions on institutionalisation to strengthen HAPUA's role, but to achieve this, the complexity of bilateral and multilateral collaboration needs to be handled first, along with the upgrading and establishment of existing and future interconnection infrastructure.