Energy in Southeast Asia: A Bibliography
Regardless of whether today’s paradigm is one of “energy transition(s)” or “energy addition”, it is indisputable that understanding energy’s shifting dynamics in Southeast Asia requires close attention to the region’s contemporary and historical context. Although different countries rely on varied energy sources, gas and electricity interconnectivity remains limited, renewable capacity is comparatively low, and infrastructural shortages. ASEAN, the region’s intergovernmental official, lacks the supranational regulatory and cooperative muscle of the European Union, while the uneven fiscal positions of each state preclude the region-wide deployment of industrial policy that appears to have made a comeback over the last few years. Nonetheless, widespread commitment to net zero by 2050 or 2060 – only the Philippines has remained reluctant – leave room for cautious optimism.
This bibliography is non-exhaustive, and intended as a primer for those seeking to understand the region, for whom some familiarity with the energy literature is assumed.
First published August 2024
Bibliography
- Although the IEA has been one of the most visible organisations mainstreaming net zero targets in the energy sphere, its origins as an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) institution have precluded the immediate inclusion of many Southeast Asian countries. Hence, its coverage is relatively limited compared to European and American states, although Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore are ‘association’ members, with the latter soon hosting a branch of the IEA by end-2024. Recent reports have focused on Climate Resilience for Energy Security (July 2024), Decarbonisation Pathways (April 2023) and an Energy Outlook (May 2022).
- Established in 1999, the centre provides publications, working papers, including a Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (current cycle 2016 – 2025), and an ASEAN Energy Outlook (2022). Notable initiatives discussed by the ACE include the ASEAN Power Grid,
International Renewable Energy Agency
- Following a 2018 agreement with ASEAN, IRENA provides energy planning support, roadmaps, and forms of capacity building including outlooks and assessments for Malaysia (March 2023) and Indonesia (January 2023).
Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)
- Offers reports, working papers, and books on energy security, resilience, and transition, alongside a wide range of topical discussions like LNG price, EV batteries, CCUS etc. Founded in 2007 as a think tank equivalent to the OECD, and therefore covers many non-energy matters too.
Asian Development Bank – Energy Transition Mechanism
- As of Q3 2024, the Asian Development Bank is piloting an energy transition mechanism intended to replace coal-based energy generation and capacity.
SEA Information Platform for the Energy Transition
- Publishes a monthly newsletter, often themed around certain energy carriers like natural gas (July 2024) or the ASEAN Power Grid (2024)
Country-specific links (alphabetically arranged)
Brunei:
- Offers information on energy security, conservation and renewable (notably solar) initiatives. Materials often in Bahasa.
Cambodia:
- Limited information like press releases.
Indonesia:
Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources:
- Access to strategic plans, energy outlook, economic statistics.
Just Energy Transition Partnership Indonesia:
- Run by the JETP Secretariat, offering information about the plan’s technical components, financing, policies and other principles. Focuses on the Comprehensive Investment and Policy Plan (CIPP) used to mobilize finance.
Laos:
- Largely incomplete website, limited information. Provides an organisation chart.
- Press releases, organisation charts pertaining to the Laotian electricity sector (in Laotian).
Malaysia:
Ministry of Economy (Energy Division)
- The energy department is sited within the economic ministry rather than with the sustainability and environmental ministry. Reports include the energy transition roadmap (September 2023)
Myanmar:
- As of August 2024, statistics still work in progress. Some press releases available.
The Philippines:
- Provides information at a much more transparent scale
- Grid-specific information, investment data
- The Philippines’ independent industry regulator, with information about regulatory decisions, resolutions.
Singapore:
- Provides energy statistics, industry reports including progress to net zero, electricity market outlooks.
- Provides some information on specific industries, such as Singapore’s National Hydrogen Strategy.
Thailand:
Energy Policy and Planning Office
- Provides disclosures, an overview of the Thai Integrated Energy Blueprint, and information on bilateral energy relationships (e.g. trade with its neighbouring states). Many documents are provided in Thai.
- Thailand’s independent power industry regulator, provides data on energy mix, disclosures, and news and updates regarding the industry.
Vietnam:
- Offers an overview of various energy sectors across Vietnam, policy updates, and news on public and private energy activity.
- Analyses the recent Just Energy Transition partnership, designed to decarbonise Vietnam and receiving about ~7.75b in pledges. Pays attention to the resource mobilization plan component as well as the political and environmental costs of the plan.
Energy History
Energy history is a relatively recent and developing subfield. Although attention was paid in the late 20th century to specific energy carriers and sectors, the shift towards analysing energy as a system – necessary to consider energy transitions – is relatively recent. The imperative for energy-focused policy work and historical research has been accelerated by the virtual consensus amongst major scientific institutions of the anthropogenic nature of climate change, just as previous shifts in the literature driven by various ‘crises’ – shifting production of coal, the tumult of oil in the 1970s – alongside developments in a world of states and businesses.
Nonetheless, even these studies have largely focused on energy histories of Europe and North America, growing out of the work of economic historians, business historians, and historians of science and technology, and the environment. Despite this (perhaps unsurprising) slant in the literature, it is possible to historicise past and present energy transitions in Southeast Asia, through the work of academic historians and other scholars.
While few monographs explicitly identify themselves as works of energy history on Southeast Asia, a number of articles and political economy scholarship offer a historical picture of energy developments and transition in the region. Palm oil in particular has received extensive scholarly attention, both due to its geographical specificity and significant role in local economies, alongside its ecological impact. While it is currently mostly used for consumption rather than as biofuel and feedstock, it will be discussed here too.
Electricity
Mohsin, Anto. Electrifying Indonesia: Technology and Social Justice in National Development. University of Wisconsin Press, 2023. https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/6084.htm.
- Historical overview of Indonesia’s electrification from a STS scholar, examining the process as a transformative nation-building project through the dominant state actor the PLN and various private actors. Particularly interesting are (1) Chapter 4’s discussions of the integrated grid system – claimed to be SE Asia’s first when it was inaugurated in April 1987 – amidst a sea of diesel power plants that went from a stopgap measure to the main form of electrification, (2) Chapter 5’s discussion of the technoscientific knowledge around energy systems and (3) the book’s overarching argument of patrimonial developmentalism.
Oil
Ng, Weng Hoong. Singapore, the Energy Economy: From The First Refinery To The End Of Cheap Oil, 1960-2010. London: Routledge, 2011. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203157732.
- A journalist’s account of Singapore’s oil economy, linking it to its post-independence economic development and preliminary thoughts on ‘sustainable development’ from the vantage point of its publication in 2011.
Sovacool, Benjamin K. ‘The Political Economy of Oil and Gas in Southeast Asia: Heading towards the Natural Resource Curse?’ The Pacific Review 23, no. 2 (12 May 2010): 225–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/09512741003624484.
- A political economy analysis of oil and gas in Southeast Asia that rejects a ‘resource curse’ understanding of the region. Provides a comparison with OPEC and BRICS’ oil production and economic statistics.
Zanden, Jan Luiten van, Joost Jonker, Stephen Howarth, and Keetie Sluyterman. ‘A History of Royal Dutch Shell’. OUP Catalogue, 2007. https://ideas.repec.org//b/oxp/obooks/9780199298778.html.
- Voluminous 1,800 page set of four books published on Shell’s centenary. A largely corporate and business history, benefitting from access to Shell archives in London and Den Haag, and Volumes 1 and 2 discuss its activities in the colonial Dutch East Indies and its transition from its Indonesian operations to the West.
Gas
Dodge, Alexander. ‘The “Changing Same of Power”: State Territoriality and Natural Gas Market Liberalization in Thailand’. Geoforum 112 (1 June 2020): 31–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.03.015.
- Examines the evolution of natural gas markets in Thailand since the 1980s, and the dominance of the Thai state over infrastructure and markets alike.
Biofuel
Li, Tania Murray, and Pujo Semedi. Plantation Life: Corporate Occupation in Indonesia’s Oil Palm Zone. Duke University Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1zn1t03.
- Ethnographic exploration of Indonesian oil palm plantations, where half of the world’s supply comes from. Focuses on life within the plantation, and its model of production and lives within, in which corporate and colonial, racial ideology, and managerial ideology all explain the political and economic logic and lived experiences of plantations.
To-Do?
Contributions and suggestions, for individual resources or even sections are greatly welcomed. This bibliography is a work-in-progress, and we welcome feedback. Possible extensions include:
- Visualising energy in SE Asia
- Australia / Oceania
- Datasets
Prepared by Ernest Lee. Special thanks to Nicholas Loh for suggestions pertaining to state agencies.