Page 51 - MASHRAE 35th Anniversary

of average household income will go into paying off electricity bills.
Unlike EE measures for commercial buildings, EE measures for household energy consumption need to be addressed differently at a personal level instead of building-wide scale. However, there are similarities such as the basic requirement of thermal comfort being a priority. The most direct way of providing thermal comfort is by means of air- conditioning. From an energy efficiency perspective, residents can consider various simple but effective EE measures as suggested below instead of relying solely on air-conditioning for thermal comfort.
─ Adopt passive design measures such as minimise solar radiation heat gain with external shadings and roof insulation. In addition, strategic landscaping can help reduce urban heat island effect as trees and shrubs can provide external shading to reduce solar heat gain into buildings.
─ Natural ventilation through windows to promote cross ventilation especially when outside air cools down.
─ Natural daylight harvesting will help save electricity as well as eliminating a heat source from electric lighting.
─ Use energy efficient fans such as direct current (DC) fans. DC fans consume up to 70% less energy to produce the same output as AC fans.
─ Use air conditioners sparingly, confining to only localised work areas instead of the whole house.
─ Low temperature setpoint of air-conditioners should be avoided; a suitable setpoint should be in the range of 240C to 260C. A few degrees higher can significantly reduce energy consumption without sacrificing occupants’ thermal comfort.
─ Wearing suitably light attire will help achieve the required thermal comfort.
─ Energy labelling of appliances should be promoted to ensure greater use of energy- efficient appliances.
In addition to energy efficiency, energy sustainability in ASEAN as well as around the globe will need to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix and accelerating the implementation of energy efficiency in all sectors. Currently, ASEAN’s power generation mix is dominated by coal, gas, and hydropower. Although
they comprise the most abundant energy resources in ASEAN, the ‘intermittent renewables’ solar and wind have so far contributed negligible amounts (2.4% in 2020) to the power mix. Of course, there is a need for reform in the energy sector, especially the electricity market to have more open competition in all sections of the electricity market such as generation, transmission, and distribution. Further reform in rules and procedures will be needed to allow more advanced and competitive technologies to enter the market share of energy mix rather than using old rules and procedures to protect/favor the traditional fuel. The future electric market will need to move from the hybrid model “single buyer” to full market competition with an independent power regulator and regional institutional system operator to facilitate the electricity market in wholesale as well as retail market, which will encourage more market participants/players to join. Another area that needs policy reform is the combined heat and power (CHP) or cogeneration with waste heat recovery. Despite the advantages of cogeneration plants, the uptake of such technology in industries has been slow and policy measures are needed to be put in place to address the challenges of policy constraints that maybe hindering the uptake of such technology.
For energy in post COVID-19, the quality energy infrastructure will need to be promoted and adopted in ASEAN as it will ensure inclusive growth to bring harmony of people, development, and environment sustainability.
To meet the future energy demand, the ERIA outlook for the East Asia region estimates that about US$430-440 billion will be needed in the power generation sector, US$149-226 billion for refineries and US$16-28 billion for LNG terminals (Kimura & Han ed.2019). More broadly, The IEA Outlook 2017 projects US$2.1 trillion will be required for oil, gas, coal, and power supply. More than 60% of investment goes to the power sector with Transmission and Distribution (T&D) accounting for more than half of the total necessary investment.
Globally, the infrastructure investment gap is estimated to be U$S15 trillion from now till 2040. Asia alone will have a US$4.6 trillion investment gap from now till 2040 (Ministry of Finance, Japan, 2019). ERIA-IEEJ estimated that the ASEAN region will require an energy investment of about