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Jul 30

ASEAN Energy Policy: Case of Indonesia

COUNTRY OVERVIEW

Indonesia is the largest country in Southeast Asia in terms of land area and population. It is 17,508 islands with a total land area almost two million square kilometers are inhabited by 237,641,326 people (BPS, 2010). Indonesia has experienced an increasingly strong economic expansion since recovering from the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Economic growth accelerated to a 10-year high of 6.5% in 2011 (BI, 2012), despite unstable global financial markets and a slowing world economy.

Map of Indonesia

As a consequence of the relatively high economic growth and rapid increase of population, energy consumption in Indonesia has been growing at a high rate. Although currently the country is one of the worlds’s largest producers and exporters of natural gas and coal, this former member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Country has to import the crude oil and petroleum fuel in order to meet the one-third of demand. Energy access is also one concern as per 2011, the electrification rate still laid on 73%. As fossil energy resources are finite, an efforts need to be undertaken to optimize the utilization of energy resources, especially the renewable energy sources where its potential is relatively abundant. With its relatively isolated islands and regions, provision of basic energy needs by renewable energy is an appropriate option. Read more

Jul 24

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ASEAN Races to 15/2015 with SMEs

http://theenergycollective.com/ July 25, 2012

So, I have to make some revision here, as finally, I am back on board. My latest article is up now in the http://theenergycollective.com/ “The world’s best thinkers on energy & climate”. I wrote about the goal of ASEAN to reach 15% energy mix from renewable energy by 2015 and how the Small and Medium Enterprises could be the key for the successful of this goal.

Now, renewable energy is the priority for development for ASEAN member states. With abundant renewable energy resources as one region, they are currently implementing a vision of renewable energy into progressive actions by engaging more renewable activities and enhancing greater regional collaboration. They are also working to identify areas where clean and renewable energy can emerge and deploy to mitigate the adverse impact of the climate change as well. At the national level, each country has tried to come up with its own renewable energy policy. Expecting by 2015, 15% target is achieved.

But to what partners should the countries look for here?

For the region where Small and Medium Enterprises or SMEs account for over 90% of all enterprises in every Member State and employ more than half the workforce in most Member States (APEC Policy Support Unit in June 2010 published a report entitled SME Market Access and Internationalization: Medium-term KPIs for the SMEWG Strategic Plan), SMEs is the answer. (Although there’s a never ending debate about the definition of SMEs in various countries).

Read it full here: Will ASEAN realise its 2015 renewable energy goals?

Jul 9

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PPT: Energy Management Policy in ASEAN

Back from one week in Cambodia, attended the 30th SOME and its associated meeting, now I am attending the Workshop on ASEAN Coal Database and Information System -Jakarta, 9-12 July 2012, organized by Geological Agency, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Indonesia, under AFOC

This morning, as one of resource person, I presented Energy Management Policy in ASEAN. This is not the best one as I only had a very short time to prepare it. But I think, I could share it with you, for your reference.