Energy policy and administration

Cambodia is overly reliant on developing large-scale hydro and fossil fuel-fired power stations, and should look to diversify its energy generation portfolio through cost-effective non-hydro renewable energy technologies that also offer fewer social and environmental costs, a study released on 20 January advised. In a report titled ...

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung stressed the need to ensure power and coal supply in the decades to come in service of national growth and development. The leader was speaking at a meeting of Government standing members in Hanoi on 19 January, to scrutinise a ...

Thailand’s energy policymakers have expressed concern that the low oil price is encouraging motorists to be careless with energy consumption.  The government is looking at raising the tax on fuel to increase its fund for campaigning for alternative fuels, said Areepong Bhoocha-oom, the Energy Ministry’s permanent-secretary.  Keep ...

Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai requested the National Oil and Gas Group (PVN) to continue to search for new sites, and produce more oil and gas in 2016. He described these activities as a key task for the sector in 2016. Speaking at a conference ...

The Thai government approved a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 21 December to purchase electricity from the Nam Thuen 1 hydropower project in Laos. The draft MoU was endorsed by the National Energy Policy Committee chaired by Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, which will see Thailand ...

Cambodia’s delegates are returning with mixed feelings about the agreement to try and save the planet from catastrophic climate change that was adopted on 12 December at the UN Climate Talks in Paris, known as COP21. In an email sent just before the treaty was adopted, government ...

Thailand will consider a proposal to increase the memorandum of understanding on the purchase of electricity from Laos from 7,000 megawatts to 10,000MW after committing to buy 3,316MW this year, Energy Minister General Anantaporn Kanjanarat said on 9 December. He was speaking after a ceremony to ...

Thailand’s heavy dependence on natural gas for the power sector has been trimmed to 60% from 70% thanks to greater use of coal and renewable sources, says the Energy Policy and Planning Office (Eppo). The coal-fired Hongsa power plant in Laos has helped to increase the ...

Reducing the use of scarce natural resources through measurement of energy efficiency is critically needed to meet the energy demand of a growing economy like Vietnam, Vu Van Khiem, director general of the Ministry of Science and Technology’s National Office of the Southern Region, has ...

A Central Administrative Court judge has given a preliminary opinion dismissing villagers’ demands to have a say in the Xayaburi hydropower dam project, on the grounds that it is not a state-owned project. The judge, whose name court officials declined to reveal, also said that a process ...