Background

The Mekong region is undergoing a period of intense economic and social development as the economies in the region continue their rapid growth. Regional economic integration has become the dominant discourse through which this development is viewed and thus sets the decision‐making framework within each country. The power sector is playing a key role in this regional development; however, the complexity of the sector and the large number of actors involved present environmental, social and economic hurdles and accentuate regional differences. The paramount concern is that the social and environmental impacts of the power sector within this rush towards integration may have been overlooked or only superficially examined. It is believed that more financially and environmentally sustainable power alternatives have not been given adequate consideration.

The conference focused on investigating the current situation in the regional power context. It was entitled ‘Know Your Power: Towards a Participatory Approach to Sustainable Power Development in the Mekong Region’ and examined issues such as power strategies and power planning in the countries of the Mekong Region, alternatives to these strategies, the issues caused by the power sector in the regional context, opportunities for sustainable power development and recommendations for future progress.

Energy Policy Contexts of Mekong Countries

Thailand has one of the most established energy sectors in the region, partly due to a strong involvement in the sector by private sources of finance. However, investment is becoming increasingly disconnected from the need for electricity. In this presentation, Chuenchom Sangarasri Greacen explains a possible solution: an alternative Power Development Plan for 2012.

Presentation: Rethinking Thailand's Power Development Plan part 1 and part 2

Myanmar has a relatively underdeveloped energy sector but there are many plans underway for its expansion. These plans are largely concentrated on exporting energy and ignore the electricity needs of the local population. Furthermore, there are weak or non-existent standards for environmental and community protection.

Presentation: Launch of China Burma Project Unleashes Abuse Across Burma

Laos is also increasing the size of its power sector as exports of electricity are an important source of revenue for the country. The government has ambitious plans for domestic electrification, although achieving this objective is becoming increasingly difficult as there are financial limits to grid expansion.

A comparatively low percentage of Cambodia’s population has access to electricity. The population uses several forms of decentralised energy to generate electricity, however, the government is looking to large-scale centralised options to develop the power sector.

China continues to forecast high levels of growth coupled with increased urbanisation in the future, all of which will require increasing amounts of energy. Although China has committed itself to be more efficient in it’s energy use and move towards a greener model of energy generation, there are still many negative environmental, health and social impacts that result from the power sector.

Presentation: Challenges of Social and Environment Justice in Chinese Energy Development

Issues

There are several trends taking place in the context of regional power development: national and regional grids are being built, major investments are being made in transmission systems, there is a bias towards large-scale generation of electricity (hydro, coal, gas and nuclear power generation), demand is over-projected and the energy planning process is non-participatory.

These trends are giving rise to a number of issues in regards to the environment, rural communities, the financing of projects and governance on a national and regional scale. A quick summary of each of these issues is provided below, along with some material from the conference if you would like to learn more about these issues.

The Environment

Damage to the environment is often not taken into account in an adequate way. One reason for this is that there is difficulty in transforming ‘externalities’ caused by power developments into an economic value. There are also accountability issues in terms of who is liable for any damage and how this should be calculated if there is no economic measure for their impact. The types of damage that can result from power development projects include the destruction of fish and other wildlife by hydropower dams, flooding and disruption to the natural flow of water causing water shortages downstream. Nuclear power poses severe threats to the environment in terms of land taken for development, the potential for an accident to occur and the problem of how waste is dealt with.

 Presentation: Evidence-based Risks and Externalities from IPP Projects in Laos

Finance

Governments often need to rely on external sources of finance to build power projects. The private sector is becoming an increasingly important actor in the financing of power projects, such as through investing in IPPs. This raises the question of how damage caused by power projects will be mitigated and who should pay. If the private sector is partially responsible for the project but only the government is accountable, then how will the communities affected be compensated?

Electricity has traditionally been recognised as a ‘necessity’ and so it was supplied by the government as a public good. However, it is increasingly becoming a ‘commodity’ that can be developed, bought and sold by private enterprise to make a profit. This means that the motivation for its generation is increasingly skewed towards benefitting businesses rather than serving public needs.

Presentation: Climate Objectives Shaping Energy Agendas: The Role of Donors

Decentralised Energy

Decentralised energy is electricity generation and transmission that takes place on a small and local scale. The decentralised energy model is different to a centralised energy approach, whereby instead of having one power source that distributes electricity to a large area, there are many smaller power sources that supply local areas. This system is often more efficient (as it can react quickly to changes in demand), cheaper (due to no or low transmission costs) and more stable (in the case of a disruption to the system, fewer people are likely to be affected) than centralised energy. A decentralised approach is also much less harmful to the environment than large hydro power facilities or coal-fired plants, uses renewable energy (such as biofuel) and is often easily adopted by small, remote communities.

Examples of decentralised energy in the Mekong region include solar home systems, pico-hydro power and battery charging systems. The presentation below shows a solar home system project being implemented in small communities along the border between Thailand and Myanmar.

Presentation: Thailand Solar Home System Sustainability

Download

- Panelists' presentation and schedule 

- Glossary of Energy Terms

News on the event

- Groups back expansion of small-scale power sources, The Myanmar Times, 13-19 Feb 12

- Asia News Network, issue Jan 26-Feb 9, 2012: page 12-14

- BBC Burmese Radio, Jan 12 and Script translated in English 

- Big gap in Mekong, One side still in the Dark 

- FFRC blog

- Photos from the conference