To help accelerating the energy transition, improve intersectoral collaboration and connect academia with and policymakers, ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) and its academe partner, Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), successfully held the 1st ASEAN International Conference on Energy and Environment (AICEE) that was taken place on 15 September 2021 in conjunction with ASEAN Energy Business Forum (AEBF) 2021. It provided networking opportunities for academics, practitioners and stakeholders. The theme of this first edition of AICEE is ASEAN energy transition with resiliency in the post-pandemic climate change era. 

This theme is also aligned with ASEAN vision under ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) to pursue optimal road map to decarbonisation and shift to low carbon energy thru energy transition efforts. In addition, to bridge the silo and pave the way forward, the short run target of energy security and long run target of sustainability should be reconciled within the framework of energy transition. During the energy transition, a mixture of fossil fuels and renewable energy that maximises economic growth and minimises emissions might be preferable. 

The 1st AICEE is fully supported by the ASEAN Climate Change and Energy Project (ACCEPT) – a jointly implemented project by ACE and Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) on the event execution and the publication of the papers on the IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science. 

To begin with, H.E. Dato Lim Jock Hoi, the Secretary-General of ASEAN, commenced his congratulatory remarks by expressing his expectation that AICEE will help ASEAN deal with the multifaceted climate issues and development in the energy sector as well as will give the chance to form a joint force of an interconnected goal for a secure and competitive energy future of ASEAN. This is then followed by H.E. Haji Azhar Haji Yahya, the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Energy of Brunei Darussalam. He emphasised on strong collaboration of ASEAN members and the partners to play key role in achieving a future of low carbon economy, hence this forum will be one of the milestones to achieve such a positive collaboration. 

The next, we had welcoming remarks from the Steering Committees: Dr. Nuki Agya Utama (Executive Director of ACE), Dr. Joyce Teo Siew Yean (Assistant Vice Chancellor and Vice President on Global Affairs of UBD), and Dr. Ethel Agnes Pascua-Valenzuela (Executive Director of Southeast ASEAN Ministers of Education Organisation – SEAMEO Secretariat). Dr. Nuki Agya Utama stated that AICEE represents the triple helix collaboration between government, industry and academe to foster region’s fast growing energy sector, especially during Covid-19 pandemic. Dr. Joyce highlighted that this conference could address some challenges and take the opportunities in the energy development. Dr. Ethel was echoing the idea that ASEAN countries should continuously work to boost energy market resilience and ensure more sustainable growth in all aspects. 

The conference was divided into three sessions where in each session, there were a plenary lecture from the invited speaker and the presentations from selected authors which was moderated by one of Scientific Committees. Session I discussed the topic about Renewable Energy Technologies and Policies and the session was started by listening the plenary lecture entitled Life Cycle Thinking for Energy and Environment from Prof. Shabbir H. Gheewala from the Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment (JGSEE) of King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi. Prof Shabbir said that Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is important to avoid problem shifting between life cycle stages, impact categories and sustainability pillars. Life cycle itself is started from resource extraction, production, manufacturing, usage, and end of life (dispose of recycle of the product). In term of energy use, renewable energy (RE) is totally no emissions free, and we have to reduce its impact and make RE better than fossil fuels through LCA. 

Live Session I was moderated by Dr. Muhammad Raziq Rahimi Kooh, Lecturer at the Centre for Advanced Material and Energy Sciences, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. The presentation topics were varied from climate change and corporate governance, climate financial, policy review on electric vehicle (EV) readiness, Covid-19 impacts to EV stocks and the alignment between ASEAN energy transition-Paris Agreement-Covid-19 pandemic. In this session, the presenters are coming from Ghana, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Australia. 

Moving on the Session II that discussed the topic about Transition of Energy System and Smart Power Distribution. The session was started by listening the plenary lecture, which was delivered by Prof Taufik, the Director of Electric Power Institute from Cal Poly State University, USA. He brought the presentation entitled DC House for Rural Electrification. Prof. Taufik explained about the advantages of DC compared to AC in electrical systems which bring this idea to make DC House Project started in 2010. Furthermore, DC grid with distributed renewables system as opposed to centralised system will improve reliability, resiliency and scalability. In the future, residential DC load will become increasingly prevalent in types and capacity. However, he said to enhance the application of DC system by developing reliable software that covers energy management system for monitoring and controls. 

Live Session II was moderated by Dr. Roshan Thotahamuge, Senior Assistant Professor at the Centre for Advanced Material and Energy Sciences, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. The presentation topics were varied from microgrid integration in the Philippines, enterprise development in the energy sector, Rankine Cycle design for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), technical aspects for mini hydro power plant project, and modelling low carbon integrated electricity generation in ASEAN. In this session, the presenters are coming from the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan.  

In the last session of the conference, Session III discussed the topic about New Energy Technologies. A plenary lecture from Dr. Abdul Hanif Mahadi, Research Lead at the Catalysis Research Group also as a Deputy Director at the Centre for Advanced Material and Energy Sciences, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, began Session III. Dr. Hanif Mahadi delivered the lecture entitled Catalysing Sustainable Hydrogen Energy: Production and Storage. He explained about hydrogen technology and how to produce hydrogen: grey, blue and green hydrogen. He also mentioned about new advance technology where we combine photocatalysis with other techniques to result photoelectrochemical (PEC). In addition to store the produced hydrogen, there are two main ways: physical based (e.g., compressed gas or liquid hydrogen) and chemical based (e.g., organic hydrogen carriers, ammonia and related compounds, and adsorbent). 

Dr. Abdul Hanif Mahadi also moderated the live session III. This session discussed about emerging technology to provide cleaner energy in the future. The presentation topics covered several fields: enhance biogas production, high-efficient gasification in a low-tar biomass gasifier, photocatalyst for hydrogen production and hydrogen potential in ASEAN. The presenters are coming from the Philippines, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia.