59-05-032 Proceeding

40 Proceedings of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Congress Case Study: China in brief Following three decades of rapid economic growth, China has now enteredwhat President Xitermed the “new normal” development reality, where growth is expected to slow down and largely driven by domestic consumption. Undermounting pressure to reduce energy consumption, carbon emission, and most importantly, air pollution, the Chinese government has reportedly adopted internationally established best practices and targeted energy intensive industries to conserve energy and improve energy efficiency. After a successful Top 1,000 Energy-consuming Enterprises program which surpassed saving target of 100 Mtce in the 11 th Five-year Plan, the program is expanded to include Top 10,000 Energy-consuming Enterprises in the current 12 th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), covering two-thirds of total energy consumption (IEPD, 2011). However, this top-down approach may create loopholes in monitoring and enforcement, as local government officials, whose promotion depends on whether enterprises in their jurisdictionmeet EE targets, may have conflicted incentives when monitoring these companies’ EE performance. Umbrella policies like carbon tax should be implemented to createmarket incentives for companies to comply with the conservation laws. China also has great renewable development potential due to abundant renewable resources. Hydro, wind and solar, constitute 23%, 6% and 1% respectively of installed capacity for electricity generation in 2013 (Davidson, 2014). Despite the rapid advance in technology development and investment, grid connectivity of renewable sources is still poor.This fact should call for the balance between more rural off-grid (or micro-grid developments) to the traditional large grid networks. For solar, current installed capacity concentrates in the sun-rich western China, where demand is low and building transmission infrastructure to supply the south is costly, leavingmuch generated electricity undelivered (Liu, 2013). Furthermore, the two main grid operators in China have been focusing on transmission from fossil fuel sources, and are still at the early stage of adopting smart grid technology for intermittent renewable sources.Therefore, matching supply and demandwhile ensuring grid connectivity is important for delivering renewable energy systems successfully. Implications on Thailand Thailand has been one of the leading economies in ASEAN with great growth potential. To achieve sustainable development, Thailand’s energy sector should work towards diversifying energy sources and reducing energy intensity, as currently 90% of electricity generation is from fossil fuel and the energy intensity performance has been flat for the last two decades (ADB, 2013). The 20-year Energy Efficiency Development Plan (2011-2030) sought to focus on transport and industry sectors with specific short-, medium- and long-term goals. With a few effective measures in place, including feed-in-tariff for solar, there are institutional, financial and technological barriers that hinder progress. Thailand should learn from established best practice to implement measures like appropriate electricity pricing to reflect environmental externality, financial mechanisms to attract investment on EE and renewable energy, reduce cost of advanced technology through R&D activities, etc. In addition, Thailand should explore power collaboration opportunities