Research Database

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attracted the world's attention since it was proposed. This study focuses on the BRI in the energy sector in ASEAN. It examines the current status of China's investment into ASEAN's energy sector. It then discusses the problems of China's investment into the ASEAN energy sector with two cases in Myanmar. In addressing the problems and challenges, the study adopts a ‘sense of ownership’ framework to analyze how to improve the acceptability of the Chinese investment. It argues that the BRI priorities, including ‘people-to-people bond’, provide an opportunity to bring a sense of ownership to the community networking that is to be built as a key part of BRI and more profoundly, an opportunity to establish a good image and to make investment projects successful.

This paper studies an optimal design of grid topology and integrated photovoltaic (PV) and centralized battery energy storage considering techno-economic aspect in low voltage distribution systems for urban area in Cambodia. This work aims at searching for an optimal topology including size of the battery energy storage by two different methods over the planning study of 15 years. Firstly, the shortest path algorithm (SPA) and first-fit bin-packing algorithm (FFBPA) are used to find out the topology which minimize the line and the load balancing. Secondly, mixed integer quadratically constrained programming (MIQCP) algorithms are developed to search for a topology which minimize conductor use and the load balancing improvement. Next, Genetic algorithm is developed to size the maximum PV peak power connected into LV network with respected to voltage and current constraints. Then, the size of battery energy storage procedure is established in order to eliminate the reverse power flow going on medium voltage (MV) grid and to improve the autonomous operation time of system. A discounted cost method is used to evaluate the solutions for different methods. Lastly, an urban area in Cambodia is chosen as a case study in this paper. Simulation results confirm the proposed method in this research.

ASEAN is a region with a high level of economic growth. However, ASEAN region is also faced with several important issues in the energy sector such as high energy consumption growth, fossil energy dependency, and fluctuations in energy prices. Energy efficiency is viewed as the proper way to enhance energy security. The concept of energy intensity (ratio of energy consumption per GDP) is used to describe the level of energy efficiency. The objective of the research is to analyze factors that influence energy intensity in ASEAN region. This study uses secondary data in the nine Southeast Asian countries in 2001-2014. This study employs an analysis with Arellano Bond Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) panel data to analyze factors that affect energy intensity. The results of the study find that the variable of GDPper capita and energy prices have a significantly negative effect on energy intensity. The variable of energy consumption per capita has significantly positive effect on energy intensity. The variables of trade openness and foreign direct investment have no significant effect on energy intensity.

Potential depletion of fossil fuel and climate change have globally accelerated the demand in renewable and alternative energy. Most of the Southeast Asian countries have an abundance of biomass sources for the energy sector due to their agriculture-based economy and enormous forest resources. Therefore, the study aimed at highlighting an overview of biomass energy in the Southeast Asia countries to convey the environmental and economic benefits from the available biomass sources in the region. In order to achieve the aim, the study synthesized and evaluated the biomass sources, energy potential, utilization, and management in the region, based on the published research papers, review papers, and country reports. It was found that the major biomass sources in this region were fuelwood, wood residues, rice husk, rice straw, sugarcane residues, oil palm residues, and coconut residues. The total annual quantity of the biomass potential from agriculture and forest sector in the region was estimated at more than 500 million tons per year and equal to over 8000 million gigajoules of total energy potential. In order to implement the sustainable utilization of biomass sources, the study specified the barriers and challenges of biomass utilization in these countries and proposed a sustainable approach of biomass energy, by comparing the way of traditional biomass utilization.

Renewable energy implementation could become the alternative for electrical energy supply in a remote area with no network for electricity and also could be implemented in an urban area to reduce electricity consumption in daily usage. One of the problems to implement renewable energy is how to measure solar power potential and wind power potential to decide the qualification to apply the system in a particular area. This research used Arduino Uno as the main Controller that connected to a Voltage sensor, Current Sensor ACS712 30A dan light intensity sensor BH1750 to measure solar power potential and also anemometer to measure wind power potential. Software design was done using Arduino IDE program that successfully produced stable Low-Cost system that can operate well with all kind of solar panel with maximum Voltage of 34.7 V and current ± 30 A. The results from system testing shows that the system has accuracy for voltage sensor with value of 99.2%, current sensor with value of 95.3% and light intensity sensor with value of 99.8% and also has excellent precision with SDR value for every sensor are 0.034%, 4.58% and 0.026%.

Southeast Asian governments have maintained “energy self-reliance” and “energy security” as essential rationales of their macroeconomic policy. Since the availability of energy remains necessary for unabated domestic growth and development, the pursuit for “alternative” sources of energy and the resolve to build sustainable energy systems are constant priorities. Informed by the literature on policy discourse, this article draws attention to the analytical use and significance of policy discourse as a means to examine sustainable energy policies in Southeast Asia, which dominantly adopted an economic lens for “energy supply security.” Policy documents were examined to show the congruence and variation of policy discourses that prompted the governments of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore to institutionalize sustainable energy development from 2000 to 2016—a critical period for the institutionalization of sustainable energy in the region, when domestic renewable energy sectors and systems were simultaneously being established by these governments.

Management of public communication plays significant role in a government. The implementation of well made management of public communication can be a means to deliver government policies both as programs and achievements broadcasted to public. The purpose of this study was to determine the implementation of communication policy management at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM). The method used was a case study at the ESDM with analysis implementation by using used Edwards III model. Based on the analysis, it was found that the implementation of the public communication management policy at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources was already underway, such as the availability of a planned public communication strategy, and indicators of success in the mass media which were not only numerous but also positive and neutral quality, so that negative coverage could be minimized. Besides,, the support of Officials and implementers, Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), and creative content through hashtags related to the Energy and Mineral Resources sector could also increase the social media followers.

The Tonle Sap is the most fertile and diverse freshwater ecosystem in Southeast Asia, receiving nurturing water flows from the Mekong and its immediate basin. In addition to rapid development in the Tonle Sap basin, climate change may threaten natural flow patterns that sustain its diversity. The impacts of climate change on river flows in […]

This study performs a techno-economic analysis of concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies for Malaysia. The solar resource assessment was done by analyzing various rural and regional locations using NASA Surface Meteorology and Solar Energy database. Three different technologies, parabolic trough collector (PTC), solar power tower (SPT) and solar parabolic dish (SPD) were assessed under different economic criterions. Results based on the analysis show that PTC and SPT type plants are particularly suitable for locations at East and Peninsular Malaysia. However, considering simple payback, the net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR), it is found that PTC type CSP plant will be the most eligible for CSP plant development. Sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the effect of the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) on the various project discount rate. Regional renewable energy policy development and regulatory reform in feed-in-tariff (FiT), hybrid technology (PTC with biogas, solar PV and biomass) implementation, project financing under clean development mechanism (CDM) and lesson learned from international experience in local PTC equipment manufacturing are some of the crucial future policy outlooks that need to be applied for CSP technology implementation, as well as long-term sustainable renewable energy system development in the country.