Energy poverty in ASEAN

In the world, there are approximately 1.3 billion people who are still lack the access to electricity
while 2.6 billion people rely on traditional methods like biomass stoves and open fires for
cooking and heating. In ASEAN region, the total number of people without electricity is around
102 million people. 40.1% of the people are in Indonesia while 47 million people also lack of
access to electricity in Myanmar and the Philippines. There are only three countries where the
electrification rates are about 100%. There are Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Singapore.
Cambodia and Myanmar have the lowest rural electrification ratios. Hence, improving electricity
access in rural places in ASEAN countries is still a major challenge.

Region Population Electrication rate Urban Rural

without (%) electrication rate electrication rate
electricity (%) (%)
(Million persons)
Brunei 0 100 100 99
Darussalam
Cambodia 10 34 97 18
Indonesia 41 84 86 71
Lao PDR 1 87 97 82
Malaysia 0 100 100 99
Myanmar 36 32 59 18
Philippines 11 89 94 85
Singapore 0 100 100 100
Thailand 1 99 100 98
Vietnam 2 98 100 97
Electricity access in ASEAN 2016

Source: IEA, World Energy Outlook 2016

Progress in achieving universal access

Five countries in ASEAN have achieved universal electricity access or are very close to
achieving the target. There are Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Vietnam has improved tremendously by having increased its rural electrification rate from
estimated of 10% in late 1980s to 97% today. However, a significant portion of the population in
the rest of Southeast Asia remains without access to electricity.

Level of access is low in Cambodia and Myanmar, where around 66.67% of people have no
household electricity. Various electrification programs and innovative business models have
shown some success in a number of ASEAN countries. For example, in Myanmar there is a fee-
for-service models that allows the poorest to pay for a very small amount of electricity.
Customers can choose various packages. For example the price of $4 per month just to power
two fluorescent light bulbs.

In Cambodia, a Rural Electrification Fund was created with the goal of providing electricity
access to 70% of the population by 2030. The fund provides interest-free loans to households to
help increase connections and also provides financial support for solar home systems. The
development of mini-grid and off-grid systems is particularly important in rural areas and small
islands in the region. In Indonesia, for instance, the “1000 Islands” programs aims to expand
electricity access in the outer islands with solar-diesel hybrid systems.

While the electricity access situation has improved notably in Southeast Asia in recent years, the
picture is bleaker for access to clean cooking. Large parts of the populations in Cambodia,
Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Philippines and Vietnam still use solid biomass in traditional
stoves for cooking. A few successful programs have been implemented, but there is still a need
for greater political and financial commitment to ensure all households in the region switch to
clean fuels