On June 4th, 2021, ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) was invited to an event by the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), in collaboration with Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 (P4G) and Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC). The international online webinar is titled as “Industrial energy efficiency: A potent tool for nations embarking on the path of sustainable development.”

Designed to be part of the celebration of the World Environment Day, the webinar aims to explore the demand aggregation based innovative business models of energy efficiency penetration in South and Southeast Asia. Additional objective is to ensure cross-learning and sensitise different stakeholders in the regions. Mr. S P Garnaik, Executive Director, Mr. Saurabh Kumar, Executive Vice Chairperson, and Mr. Rajat Sud, Managing Director, EESL provided welcoming remarks and keynote addresses.

ACE is represented by Dr Zulfikar Yurnaidi, Senior Officer of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (REE) and Senior Research Analyst of ASEAN Climate Change and Energy Project (ACCEPT). Other speakers on the event were Mr. Sarbinder Singh, Director of Investments, P4G; Mr. Suresh Kotla,

Director, Energy and Environment, ISC; Mr. Wongkot Wongsapai, Asst Prof & Energy Expert, Energy Technology for Environment Research Center, Thailand; and Mr. Martin Tzou, Senior Business Development Manager, EDF HQ Singapore.

Bringing the Southeast Asia perspectives to the discussion, Zulfikar started with the introduction of roles and responsibilities of ACE—the think tank, catalyst, and knowledge hub. He then covered the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) 2015-2025 Phase II 2021-2025, especially the strategies and action plans of Energy Efficiency and Conservation (EE&C) programme area, which has specific focus on industry.

To outline the scenarios of energy in industry sector, results from the 6th ASEAN Energy Outlook (AEO6) were presented. It is shown that the industry, along with transport, are the largest energy consuming sectors in the region, throughout the projection period up to 2040. Therefore, to achieve decarbonisation, both sectors as well as power generation would be critical. He then briefly shared the activities of EE&C in the region, which generally still has gaps in industrial EE.

Closing his presentation, he summarised the opportunities of energy efficiency application in industry sector, which includes the huge energy use and related emission, the targets which are already in place, and the large potential of efficiency gains. Nevertheless, such opportunities face challenges due to high upfront cost of equipment, risk aversion of key players, the weak implementation of supporting policies, if any, and the needs of innovative business models.

The event is closed by Ms. Poonam Pande, Deputy Head International, EESL. It has successfully promoted fruitful, constructive, and open exchange of ideas, and had a diverse participation from government delegations, partner organizations, stakeholder representatives from industry associations, experts from the industry and think tanks. Overall takeaways are:

1. Energy efficiency is one of the key pillars for decarbonization and to achieve net zero by 2050, that strongly needs support through regulatory measures.

2. Key to achieving sustainable improvement in energy efficiency is the evolution and recognition of innovative business models that commercialize energy efficiency and define energy efficiency as an asset class for investment. P4G will continue to work with the Energy Efficiency Alliance for Industry partnership to support the replication of the EESL business model in P4G countries in Asia.

3. ISC with industrial partnerships aim to mobilize the dissemination of the E2 Model in India for uptake by other countries to accelerate energy efficiency in Asia.

4. ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) is the key EE driver in Southeast Asia to study financing mechanisms, ESCO models, and best EE practices to recommend to the region.

5. SEA countries established ambitious target and plans on GHG reduction, while Thailand is going to launch the 2050 Net Zero Carbon milestone plan later this year where the energy efficiency will be a key measure to achieve the goal.

6. Circular economy projects implemented in Europe industry zones is a successful showcase that can be mobilized to the region that could largely improves global efficiency and reduces pollution and costs.

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