The ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) received a courtesy visit from the Energy Commission of Malaysia and the Energy and Environment Centre of the Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM Berhad) on 19 June 2025. The Energy Commission appointed SIRIM Berhad as the consultant for a national project on energy survey for the manufacturing, commercial, and residential sectors.  

As part of the regional benchmarking and knowledge-sharing efforts, SIRIM was reaching out to key institutions with experience in energy data development and survey implementation, including ACE. The meeting aimed to gain insights into regional approaches for energy data planning, indicators, and policy applications that may complement national initiatives in Malaysia.  

Photo 1. Group photo of the ACE team, the representatives of the Energy Commission of Malaysia, and the SIRIM Berhad 

At the start of the meeting, Zaharin Zulkifli, Deputy Director at the Energy Commission of Malaysia, presented a brief introduction. The Energy Survey Project in Malaysia is a renewal from the previous survey and analysis of energy consumption in Manufacturing (2014), Residential (2016), and Commercial (2018). The presentation includes the project outcome, timeline, and deliverables. The session also allowed ACE to discuss the status of energy data updates in Malaysia. ACE has been coordinating closely with the Energy Commission on collecting energy data annually to update the regional energy monitoring status and develop the ASEAN Energy Outlook (AEO) reports. 

Photo 2. Discussion between ACE delegations and representatives of the Energy Commission of Malaysia and the Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM Berhad) 

Secondly, the representative from SIRIM Berhad, Puan Noorsuria Binti Suradi, Engineer of Renewable and Clean Energy Section, presented on the details of energy survey benchmarking background on those three sectors, which covers sampling strategy, respondent identification, survey implementation, and data quality assurance. She shared the past energy survey conducted in Malaysia, followed by plans to benchmark the energy survey specifically in Indonesia. 

From ACE, Dr Zulfikar Yurnaidi, Head of Energy Modelling and Policy Planning (MPP), highlighted several ASEAN Member States (AMS) energy survey activities as a reference source for AEO modelling input, especially for bottom-up analysis in the residential and commercial demand sector. The survey was conducted by various energy-related stakeholders, including the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia.  

However, the countries’ data from the energy survey is still limited and has not been updated frequently. At the national level, the national statistics office conducts a regular survey focusing more on socio-economic updates. He also mentioned limited data on detailed energy consumption in the disaggregation of the industry sector. Therefore, strengthening collaboration to align the AMS statistical system on data collection and processing can be essential for having regional standardised energy statistics.  

Other colleagues from MPP and Energy Efficiency and Conservation (CEE) also actively participated in the discussion, sharing the latest policy and information from the end-use sectors in Indonesia and ASEAN.

Photo 3. (Left to right) Dr Zulfikar Yurnaidi with Zaharin Zulkifli.

Photo 4. (Left to right) Dr Zulfikar Yurnaidi with Puan Noorsuria Binti Suradi.

This initiative is also aligned with ACE current project activities with the Russia Energy Agency to explore the approaches of the AMS on the collection and processing of energy statistics data to systematise their structure, list of key statistical indicators, as well as to learn the approaches in terminology and data processing methods used in the Russian Federation.  

Moreover, to elevate the regional energy statistics database system, ACE, in cooperation with the World Bank, is working on assessing and revitalising the ASEAN Energy Database System (AEDS) to serve better data management, technical development, and a long-term operational framework. 

Cooperation with various institutions and stakeholders on energy data research and statistics is also in line with ACE’s role as a think tank by assisting and enhancing AMS on research framework, as a knowledge hub by providing data exchange and information for AMS, and as a catalyst by facilitating collaboration through policy advisory and sharing on AMS best practice.