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  • Electricity/Power Grid
27 August 2019

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  • Myanmar

ESports star Myint was on the cusp of victory when the screens went dark in the Yangon cafe where he competes, costing him thousands of dollars in missed prize-money and denting his reputation.Myanmar’s gaming scene is mushrooming, but frequent power cuts are holding players back in the emerging democracy.

But, Myanmar is at risk of missing out a medal event in the Southeast Asian Games in November with power cuts, few personal computers and a dearth of resources to support travel and competition abroad holding homegrown champions back.Myint Myat Zaw, a 21-year-old player also known as “Insane”, said he has lost about 40 matches due to blackouts, making it difficult to earn a slot abroad where cash prizes are now in the tens of millions of dollars.

He plays Dota 2, which, in Shanghai, hosted its equivalent of the champions league this weekend, boasting a record $34.3 million prize pool. But Dota 2 tournaments are rare in Myanmar, he said, making it difficult for him to earn a living from the game.

For gamers, a dingy internet cafe has long been the typical venue to battle it out with players from other countries. But that has started to change as cheap SIM cards hit the markets and smartphone use soars.

“We can play anywhere, anytime,” said Myint Myat Aung, a mobile gamer who competes on PlayerUnknown’s Battleground (PUBG) for Singapore-based eSports team Impunity. Last month, Impunity, with more than 400 other teams, took part in a PUBG tournament hosted by Samsung Galaxy at a Yangon mall.

Staring into smartphones, players took down their opponents with sniper rifles, the action projected onto a large screen as spectators cheered. The prize pool for the tournament was around $7,000, an immense sum in a country where the average income is less than $1,300 a year.

“Access to stable electricity and internet are crucial when it comes to competitive gaming,” said Jeremy Jackson, market analyst for eSports research firm NewZoo. “Undoubtedly, greater smartphone penetration will allow more people access to the mobile competitive gaming landscape.”

In a country that has produced few international athletic stars, eSports offers players a way into a global community and a chance to make a steady salary, especially for those competing in ultra-popular mobile games.Both Dota 2 and Mobile Legend — a fantasy battle game designed for smartphones with more than 3 million users in Myanmar — will be part of the competition.

  • Others
27 August 2019

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  • Brunei Darussalam

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – Malaysian oil and gas firm, Sapura Energy, has pledged to continue growing its business in Brunei as the company marked 25 years of operation in the sultanate.

Sapura provides offshore oil and gas drilling services to Brunei Shell Petroleum. Its rig, dubbed Sapura Pelaut, has drilled 178 wells for BSP over the past quarter century.

During a ceremony to mark its silver jubilee on Monday, CEO of Sapura Drilling, Raphael Siri, underlined the company’s commitment to tap into local suppliers as it mulls possible partnerships in order to grow its business in the country.

The company has spent US$15 million into procuring equipment and services in Brunei over the past three years.

We will continue this strategy as we expand our business in Brunei, Siri said, adding that maximising economic spin-off from the energy sector was in line with the government’s local business development policy.

Norzaidi Zahidin, Sapura Drilling’s director of drilling operations in Brunei, said as the company marks its silver jubilee, knowledge transfer is the biggest contribution Sapura has made to the economy.

“When it comes to investment, most people look at capital expenditure in the country to build buildings, plants and factories,” he said.

“But as a drilling contractor, we are a service provider. Part of the key strategy of our current and future expansion is to have more Bruneians [in the workforce].”

Sapura Drilling said local hires have increased from 30 percent to 80 percent after it acquired business from another drilling contractor in 2013. Norzaidi said 70 percent of key positions are held by locals.

The company added that it has plans to completely localise its Brunei workforce, making it 100 percent local.

Sapura Energy operates in over 20 countries, including China, Australia and the US, employing 13,000 people.

  • Eco Friendly Vehicle
27 August 2019

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  • Indonesia

To accelerate the entry of electric vehicles in Indonesia, the government of President Jokowi Widodo plans to allow manufacturers to bring completely built units or CBU parts.

With this plan, the government hopes the sale of these vehicles in the market will stimulate the buyers to own them.

But the chair of the Indonesian Automotive Industries Association (Gaikindo), Yohanes Nangoi criticised the move.  He reminded the government not to be careless in deciding on these issues that may cause the domestic automotive manufacturers to be unsettled.

He told Kompas the association is worried that with this policy, in 10 or 15 years, the country will import everything, thus disrupting the manufacturing process.

He said Gaikindo does not want the automotive industry to die.

Nangoi said if the goal is only to test or build a market, it is ok.  But there must be continued monitoring and supervising, he said.

Some people used the ‘do not buy a car in a sac’ terminology to describe the liberalisation of the importation of CBU cars.

They say the government should put a cap of two years for the importation of CBUs but must also promote the local manufacture of electric vehicles.

TOYOTA

According to Reuters, Toyota has to invest $2 billion in Indonesia over the next five years. Part of this commitment is to produce Electric Vehicles or EVs.

Indonesia is aiming to start producing EVs in 2022 with a number of companies disclosing plans to invest in this segment.

Indonesia is also pushing for the development of battery production facilities to create a downstream industry.

Hyundai is also in the race to build EV plants in Indonesia.

In January, Indonesia said it is finalising a new EV policy that will offer fiscal incentives to foreign car makers, as it ramps up efforts to become a lithium battery hub. -/TISG

  • Others
26 August 2019

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  • Philippines

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 26) — There is nothing unconstitutional in the terms of reference (TOR) that the Philippines has signed with China on a 2018 memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cooperation on oil and gas development, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said Monday.

He said the document was signed by Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro “Teddy” Locsin and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who will both also head the steering committee that will oversee the negotiations of all joint projects.

In a forum in Davao City last Friday, Carpio revealed that Locsin signed the TOR three weeks ago, but did not provide details.

“I have read the TOR, but I promised not to divulge the contents except to say that the TOR complies with the MOU,” Carpio told CNN Philippines in a message.

The Senior Associate Justice also told the forum that President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese leader Xi Jinping could name the members of the steering committee that would supervise negotiations for all joint projects in their meeting this week.

READ: Carpio: PH signed terms of reference on joint oil and gas exploration deal with China

Duterte will hold talks with Xi on Wednesday during his working visit to Beijing. The President earlier said he would raise the controversial arbitral ruling on the maritime dispute in the South China Sea which favored the Philippines, the MOU, and other bilateral issues during his meeting with Xi.

Duterte has long pushed for a joint oil exploration with the Asian giant, under a 60-4O sharing arrangement, with the Philippines taking the bigger chunk.

A highly-reliable source told CNN Philippines that the TOR sets up the inter-governmental steering committee and inter-entrepreneurial working groups provided in the MOU signed in November last year. Government officials, relevant agencies, and other individuals from both the Philippines and China will be part of these groups.

READ: EXCLUSIVE: MOU for talks on joint oil exploration ‘without prejudice’ to PH, China legal positions

The working groups would consist of representatives from enterprises authorized by the two governments. Beijing had appointed the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) as its representative in all working groups. The Philippines,

on the other hand, will assign the company that has a service contract with the government. If there are no such enterprises, the Philippine National Oil Company – Exploration Corporation will represent the country.

The enterprises will nominate representatives who will be part of and lead the working group, which will have the authority to hold inter-entrepreneurial commercial and technical arrangements.

Under the TOR, which has been seen by CNN Philippines, the committee and working groups will hold a meeting every three months on agreed dates and venues.

With the signing of the TOR, Carpio said the two countries “can move forward by designating the members” of the committee and working groups.

If a working group is assigned to Service Contract 72 covering the Reed Bank, CNOOC could become a partner in the project with the Philippine firm, Forum Energy,

“If the MOU and TOR are implemented, then China impliedly admits Philippine sovereign rights in Reed Bank in exchange for China’s right to be a service contractor with 40 percent share in the income,” Carpio was explained.

This, he said, “can be the template for an agreement among all disputant states.”

Philippines is among six parties with overlapping claims over the strategic waters of the South China Sea, along with Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

  • Others
26 August 2019

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  • Philippines

BANGKOK (BLOOMBERG) – Thailand is jump starting a decades-old plan to create a South-east Asia electricity super-grid, and wants to be the power-trading hub at the center of it.

The nation is set to triple the amount of electricity from Laos that it resells to Malaysia, while encouraging infrastructure upgrades stretching from Cambodia to Myanmar necessary for cross-border power trading, said Wattanapong Kurovat, director general of the country’s energy policy and planning office. The moves are part of Energy Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong’s efforts to make Thailand’s power system cleaner, cheaper and more efficient.

The trade is simple, Wattanapong said. Thailand would buy more electricity for its own national grid from Laos, which generates more than it needs from dams along the Mekong River and its tributaries. It would then have excess power in its own national grid that it could sell into Malaysia, Cambodia or Myanmar.

“We’re trying to move quickly to become the center of the region’s power grid,” Wattanapong said in an interview in Bangkok. “We already have the capacity and the infrastructure to support the vision to become the regional hub.”

The idea of connecting power plants and customers across South-east Asia has been pursued for more than 20 years, but stymied by issues including lack of government coordination and infrastructure funding.

International grids are rare outside Europe, and require solving technical and legal hurdles in addition to building expensive infrastructure. The benefits of success include increased energy security and opportunities to develop untapped renewable resources, according to the International Energy Agency.

HUB BENEFITS

Thailand already has existing grid interconnection with Laos and Malaysia. Since last year, Malaysia has been buying 100 megawatts from Laos through Thailand, and is looking to increase the volume to 300 megawatts, Wattanapong said. As well, border towns in Cambodia and Myanmar have been buying small amounts of electricity from Thailand, but infrastructure upgrades are needed to reach the scale comparable to connections with Laos and Malaysia, he said.

Being a hub would bring myriad benefits, Wattanapong said. Thailand could earn additional revenue from transmitting electricity across its power lines, address occasional capacity oversupply, and make better use of its existing infrastructure and power plants. By using its grid more efficiently, the cost of electricity in Thailand would be cheaper over the long-term, he said.

Improved interconnection could also justify building large renewable projects in developing countries that otherwise wouldn’t have demand to use them, such as hydropower in Laos or wind power in Vietnam, according to a 2017 IEA report.

HARMONIZATION, INVESTMENTS

“Thailand’s push for regional energy trading could be a step to increase security of supply and system resiliency, particularly as falling costs and higher government targets increase the volume of variable renewable energy generation in the Asean region,” said Caroline Chua, a BNEF analyst covering Southeast Asian power markets. “However, scaling up interconnection will require further regulatory harmonization and grid infrastructure investments which can be costly.”

Meanwhile, Thailand’s new minister is looking to revise its so-called Power Development Plan, a national energy guideline, and that could mean more renewable energy and electricity from small generators.

By the end of 2037, about one-quarter of Thailand’s electricity would come from so-called very small power producers, according to the plan. They would mostly generate electricity from biomass and solar plants for community use, and sell surplus power to the grid.

The country would also double the share of renewable energy and reduce shares of electricity generated from coal and natural gas, although the latter would remain the country’s largest energy source.

  • Coal
26 August 2019

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  • Vietnam

Sumitomo has started construction of the 1.3GW Van Phong 1 coal-fired power project in the Van Phong Special Economic Zone in Vietnam’s Khanh Hoa Province.

The company is involved in the power project through its wholly-owned subsidiary Van Phong Power Company.

The coal-fired Van Phong 1 power plant will include two 660MW power-generating units and is being built at a cost of JPY280bn (£2.16bn).

Sumitomo will complete the project on build-operate-transfer (BOT) model. Once complete, it will sell the electricity to Vietnam Electricity (EVN), the country’s state-owned power company, over a period of 25 years. The project is expected to reach commercial operation by the end of 2023.

As per Sumitomo, the demand for electric power has risen sharply in Vietnam and it is sharply in line with the rapid economic growth. Resolving the power shortages is expected to become a pressing issue for the country in the near future.

Vietnam aims to generate 129.5GW of energy by 2030

Under its revised National Power Development Plan VII originally formulated in 2016, the Vietnamese government is striving to meet power demand growing about 10% annually by increasing its power generation capacity to 96.5GW by 2025 and to 129.5GW by 2030.

Sumitomo, in a statement, said: “While the Group’s general policy is to refrain from building new coal-fired power plants, it has decided to make case-by-case assessments of projects deemed essential for the economic and industrial development of local communities that conform to policies established by Japan and the host country with due consideration for international efforts and trends toward mitigating climate change, and it was on this basis that this project was undertaken.”

In July, Sumitomo, in partnership with Electric Power Development (J-POWER) commenced offshore ground investigation to explore the possibility of developing an offshore wind power plant.

Sumitomo said that they are investigating around Hirashima and Enoshima islands off the coast of Saikai City, Nagasaki Prefecture.

  • Energy Policy
26 August 2019

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  • Thailand
Energy Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong is collaborating with PTT Plc to find ways of reducing the cost of electricity for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

“We believe we should be able to announce some measures in September,” the minister said, adding that the aim will be to make electricity cheaper for SMEs, so they are not burdened by high production costs.

“We cannot say what kind of measure it will be, but we have an idea and it has to be discussed with PTT before we decide how to implement it,” he said.

The Energy Ministry is also working with the Finance Ministry on special measures for the low-income strata that will be implemented through the state welfare card.

Under these measures, welfare card holders will be divided into two groups: disabled people who cannot work, and people employed as taxi drivers, motorcycle taxi drivers and chauffeurs. The first group will require a subsidy on electricity, while the second group will require a reduction in energy costs, he said.

PTT Plc is currently helping the second group by reducing the price of natural gas for vehicles (NGV), he said.

  • Renewables
26 August 2019

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  • Cambodia

The Mekong is reeling from the combined onslaught of climate change, sand-mining, and incessant damming of the river, which combined to help cause the worst drought recorded in over 100 years in July.

“This is the worst ecological disaster in history of the of Mekong region,” declared Thai natural resources expert Chainarong Setthachua.

The water level in the Tonle Sap, Cambodia’s great inland lake, the “beating heart of the Mekong,” was reduced to unprecedented shallow areas with one floating village almost completely dried up. Almost unbelievable for Tonle Sap locals was that this happened in not in the dry season, but two months into the rainy season.

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Youk Sengleng an NGO fisheries expert stationed by the Tonle Sap, shared his observations: “Many fish died because of the shallow water, hot temperature, and toxic water resulting from lack of oxygen. Around 2.5 million people who depend on the lake’s once abundant fisheries have been directly affected. “

Taking too much water out of a river essentially sucks the life out of it. Pollutants become more concentrated and water flows dwindle, resulting in the build-up of sediments that clog up the river bed.

During a normal rainy season, the Tonle Sap expands its size to over 40 percent based on a 7-8 meter rise in water level in the Mekong after the heavy monsoon rains. This amazing “flood pulse” phenomenon, whereby the Mekong reverses the flow of the Tonle tributary back into the great lake, usually happens between the end of the August and mid-September.

A heavy cloud of uncertainty and anxiety hangs over the fate of the river now. It changes course every year, but seldom with such a diminished flood pulse. It is already too weak to support the level of fish breeding and food security that normally sustains 60 million people living in the Lower Mekong basin. Even if the river finally fulfills its heavenly mandate from the Gods of Angkor to change course, his year millions will still suffer from a scarcity of fish and a protein deficiency until fish stocks recover.

Ian Cowx, director of Hull University’s International Fisheries Institute (HIFI) in the U.K., explained that the biggest long-term obstacle to the recovery of fisheries would not come from climate change and this drought, but rather from the dams upstream.

According to HIFI research, “all fish species are adapted to periods of droughts and floods” and the climate factor does not cause a risk of species extinction. “The big issue here is whether other activities such as flow regulation and [the] barriers effect caused by hydropower, pollutants, and sediment extraction have degraded the habitat, and increased the risk of extinction,” according to Cowx. “Perhaps the biggest problem here is the reduction in flows caused by Chinese dams, the Lower Sesan 2 dam [on a Mekong tributary in Cambodia] and the loss of the Hou Sahong channel because of Don Sahong dam.”

In addition to these, the Xayaburi dam, the first dam to be launched and almost completed on the Lower Mekong, is another example of predicted long-term damage to the ecosystem, far greater than the problem of temporary water fluctuations.

The primary reason for the acutely low water level in the Mekong this July was the lack of rainfall, but operations at the Jinghong dam in China, and the almost completed massive Xayaburi dam in Laos, have also been blamed for exacerbating the water crisis. China decided to “turn off the Mekong tap” from the Jinghong on the grounds that they had to carry out “grid maintenance.”

At the same time critics have also pointed the finger at the Xayaburi dam for engaging in special tests that closed the floodgates. That further angered Thai farmers 220 km downstream in Chiang Rai province.

While the Thai dam construction company CK Karnchang denies any responsibility for aggravating the water crisis, Thai NGOs have petitioned Thailand’s Administrative Court, demanding that EGAT, the Thai Electricity Commission, delay purchases of electricity from Xayaburi dam, pending further investigation into its potential role in the unseasonal drought. This litigation could delay the scheduled October launch of the dam.

Everything is changing along the Mekong. Droughts are increasing; water resources are decreasing. The rich abundance of fisheries and biodiversity are threatened both from climate change and the unregulated damming of the river.

Chainarong, who teaches political ecology and natural resources management at Maha Sarakham University, asserted, “Today, we can see from the case of Chinese dams in upstream and Xayaburi dam in [Laos] that Mekong governments and their policies have unleashed an ecological disaster in the biggest river basin in the region.”

But in spite of various scientific warnings about the Mekong’s critical decline, policymakers and governments have not heeded civil society ‘s demands to impose greater environmental controls to safeguard a Mekong under siege.

An important wake-up call was delivered by the Mekong River Commission (MRC), which is composed of four member states: Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The MRC officially launched its Council Study report on hydropower impacts in 2018. Among many alarming conclusions, the report found that there would be a 35-40 percent reduction in fish biomass by 2020. Moreover, the report warned that hydropower development through 2040 will eliminate migratory fish in large parts of the Mekong. No Mekong migratory fish species will be able to survive in the reservoirs of dams planned by 2020 and 2040.

Given that the MRC fisheries department has reported the value of the Mekong fisheries — the largest freshwater fisheries in the world — at $11 billion in wild-capture fish (excluding fish farms) for the MRC countries alone, observers might reasonably expect deep concern about the dire prospect of fish extinction.

However, three of the four member states — Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia — surprisingly declined to endorse this landmark document based on five years of research, and have shown little desire to debate the report at all. Only Vietnam welcomed and endorsed the report.

Locals observe erosion in the Mekong Delta in July 2019. Photo by Tran Van Tu.

“The Mekong governments really need to wake up to the alarms of recent years, and start working together for the common good,” urges wetlands ecologist Dr. Nguyen Huu Thien, who has worked on several international reports on the Mekong as a consultant for WWF and ICEM.

In an interview with Thien in Can Tho, he mapped out his long-term concerns for his nation’s future: “The delta is sinking because most of the nutrient-rich sediment vital to replenishing the delta is trapped upstream by dams. This causes large-scale environmental degradation that is also linked to regional instability and tension. In the future the delta will no longer be able to sustain its 18 million population. They will have to flee as migrants and refugees. Hydropower in the Mekong region is sowing the seed for regional instability and it could become a regional security issue.”

New research published by the Stockholm Environment Institute in 2018 revealed that 96 percent of the nutrient-rich sediment of the Mekong will never reach the delta if all 11 dams mapped out for the Lower Mekong are built.

If upstream damming and environmental degradation results in Vietnam “losing” the delta, it would mean the loss of its major source of rice, fruit, and vegetables, which account for nearly 25 percent of GDP. Dr Thien wonders if, “in the long-term, without the delta, Vietnam can survive as a nation?”

When and if the damming could be stopped, the WWF’s water resources lead Marc Goichot explains there would be multiple benefits to the river: “Keeping the Lower Mekong free flowing would make some 28 million people in Cambodia and Vietnam more resilient to climate and water disasters while improving their food security.”

Hopes are rising that hydropower dams could soon be regarded as obsolete as renewable energy from solar and wind power is catching on in the region. Mekong energy analyst Brian Eyler a director at the U.S.-based Stimson Center believes that MRC states are starting to embrace renewable energy and will eventually shift away from hydropower. “Since the Xayaburi dam began construction in 2012 much has changed,” he said. “I am sure some officials in Thailand’s government regretfully see the Xayburi dam (bankrolled by Thailand) as an entirely unnecessary project.”

The original dream of the MRC’s 1995 Agreement was one river of international cooperation and the equitable sharing of water resources. But Dr. Thien Ding Tran, the director of Hanoi’s Institute of Economics, speaking at a Mekong Forum a few years ago, lamented that is not how it has worked out. “We can only save the Mekong by shedding the narrow ‘pond’ mentality of making profit from [each state’s sovereign segment of the river] in the name of development.”

Some cynical commentators may argue it is too late to turn things around and chart a new and more sustainable path for the Mekong. At a time when the health of the Mekong is endangered as never before, Thai academic Chainarong is convinced otherwise. “It is not too late to protect this river by stopping all dam projects in the pipeline, and developing a different Mekong policy based on compliance with the World Commission on Dams and the full participation of civil society and riverine communities.”

“All Mekong governments should collaborate to prevent the worst impacts of natural disasters, ecological damage and the plunder of natural resources with a different Mekong policy, balancing environmental protection with development,” Chainarong continued.

Tom Fawthrop is a freelance journalist and film-maker based in Southeast Asia.

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