ASEAN countries need to double up its power capacity within 20 years in order to meet its demand, a British energy research and consultancy group said.
In a report, Wood Mackenzie said that the region would need to build an additional generating capacity of 270 gigawatts by 2035.
In order to achieve this, the group said that the region requires $500 billion worth of investments.
Edi Saputra, Wood Mackenzie Asia Pacific gas and power senior analyst said that countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia, that are low on electricity consumption, “are also lagging in power supply reliability, and therefore we could see a lot of development in those markets.”
Currently, the region’s capacity is 209 GW.
The group is expecting 89 GW worth of new capacity to begin operating in Indonesia, and 72 GW in Vietnam by 2035.
And while there is a growing shift away from fossil fuel in the world, the group said that coal will remain as the main power source in ASEAN.
According to Wood Mackenzie, 98 GW of power capacity will come from coal, 49 GW from natural gas, and 44 GW from hydropower. These power sources will come in until 2035.
“While there are a lot of plans and aspirations within ASEAN, progress has been quite limited,” said Edi. It is “partly due to the lack of joint regulations and enforcement authority of the organization upon its members.”
“ASEAN has to explore new ways of fostering energy cooperation among its members, instead of merely relying on individual efforts in isolation, apart from each other,” Edi added.
