The Power of Partnerships to Decarbonize Asia Pacific

When it comes to power, countries in Asia Pacific reckon with a core dilemma: how can they generate enough electricity to enable economic development and ensure stable supply while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions?

Home to more than 4.3 billion people across almost 45 million square kilometers, energy needs vary drastically across the region. Although every country has a part to play in making power generation more sustainable, the region’s diversity of geographies, climates and cultures mean that each will take a different path. Given these intricacies, the journey to obtaining cleaner power in Asia Pacific is not one that can be walked alone.

This fact guides our work at Mitsubishi Power Asia Pacific. Having recently undergone a company rebrand, we now stand at an exciting new phase in our history. Together with our sister companies at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group, we are even more committed to solving the foremost challenges of our time, including decarbonizing energy and bringing reliable power to people. To achieve this for Asia Pacific, my team and I are working closely with local governments, energy providers and experts to better understand each country’s evolving energy challenges so that together, we can co-create solutions. 

For decades, we have been engaging with this region’s energy sector to deliver stable and reliable power. In Indonesia, we have been partnering with Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) and independent power producers to support over 30% of the total power generation for the Java-Bali region – the country’s most populous. We also have a strong partnership with Thailand’s largest energy producer, Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) – having delivered more than half of the large-sized gas turbines they own. The strength of the Mitsubishi Power and EGAT relationship led to the creation of a 2009 joint venture called EGAT Diamond Service (EDS) to deliver trusted gas turbine maintenance and develop local engineering talent. Serving both domestic and international customers, EDS ensures reliable and efficient operations in the region’s path towards cleaner power generation. Through these and many other local collaborations, we continue to deliver the reliable power needed to support the progress of Asia Pacific countries.

Our partnerships also extend beyond providing equipment for power generation, as we help develop the region’s energy talent. We are collaborative partners and seek to learn about communities’ shifting challenges and how together we can contribute to finding solutions. We work with engineers from local energy companies such as Vietnam Electricity to ensure they have the necessary skills to make the most of their country’s power generation infrastructure. And as Vietnam looks to increase its power generation to 129,500 MW by 2030, there is a growing need for facilities that contribute to curbing CO2 emissions, such coal-fired power plants with biomass cofiring capabilities, and gas turbine combined cycle (GTCC) installations. At the same time, demand is increasing for flue-gas desulfurization and other air quality control systems (AQCS) for installation in existing power plants. Through these partnerships and trainings in power plant construction, maintenance and digitization, we will ensure that communities have the right equipment to generate cleaner power and move closer towards decarbonization.

We are always looking to the future and thinking about how we can collaborate to develop power technology that is less harmful to the environment. In January this year, we signed a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia’s Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) to conduct joint research on next-generation clean energy technologies as well as analysis of big data relating to power plants. Earlier this month, we broadened this partnership with ITB and together with PLN Group will produce a policy proposal to promote increased adoption of biomass co-firing in Indonesia’s power plants. With combined resources, experience and knowledge, we will be able to find more effective technical solutions and policy alternatives to tackle the energy challenges that are unique to our region and take these learnings worldwide.

Decarbonizing power—especially for a region as complex as Asia Pacific—won’t be achieved overnight nor by any single person or organization. We at Mitsubishi Power are working to build consensus among governments, energy providers and other key players – strengthening existing partnerships and forming new ones. It is only through collaboration that this region will obtain the social, economic, and environmental changes needed to advance its communities for generations to come.