Securing ASEAN’s Renewable Energy Future: Addressing Gaps in Electrical Safety Management System

Highlights

• Integrating complex systems of variable renewable energy (RE) sources can introduce new electrical accidents, especially in the ambition of RE shares in ASEAN countries. These include risks of fires and system failures due to improper installations, overloading, and climate impacts.
• Electrical accidents are still prevalent in many ASEAN countries, both in general, like in commercial and residential, and specifically related to RE systems.
• Safety agencies in ASEAN countries lack independent agencies focused solely on electrical safety, which limits the effectiveness of enforcement and oversight. Most ASEAN countries still operate within ministerial agency structures, with complex safety and non-safety roles and responsibilities that dilute focus.
• Restructuring agencies into independent agencies in ASEAN could follow models from developed countries like Australia, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) through the Korea Electrical Safety Corporation (KESCO). These models create truly independent agencies that are separate from political and non-safety roles, thus strengthening safety implementation through better regulatory intensity and technological advancements.