Victor Jona (L), deputy director general of energy at the General Department of Energy at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy, speaks on Monday in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Pha Lina/Phnom Penh Post

Prime Minister Hun Sen opened the 30th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting yesterday in Phnom Penh, where ASEAN officials will focus on ASEAN green energy and develop a plan for ASEAN’s power grid, officials said.

Victor Jona, deputy director general of energy of the General Department of Energy at the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Energy, told reporters on Monday that the Senior Officials Meeting on Energy (SOME) will discuss ASEAN’s power grid connectivity and green energy.

“This meeting is mainly focused on power grid connectivity and efficiency of power utilities,” he said, adding that “it’s also focused on the topic of ASEAN green energy”.

“We want to link green power, which emits no CO2 into the air with our current systems,” he continued, adding that green energy generated by sunlight, wind or  water would benefit ASEAN greatly.

Datuk Loo Took Gee, secretary general of the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water for Malaysia, said yesterday that ASEAN’s green connectivity is a new and important topic for energy development and for the future of the ASEAN community.

She said that one of the main functions of her ministry is to promote green technology, especially green energy, energy efficiency and renewable energy such as solar energy, biomass and hydro-electricity.

Few companies follow her ministry, so they need to know more about the investment climate in Cambodia, she said.

Green energy would help the ASEAN community to attract more tourists in the future, particularly by providing an electric railway connection from Singapore to China, she added. “I am sure we will develop the spirit of ASEAN cooperation here,” she said.

She added that “Malaysian companies are willing to come here to invest to help the Cambodian government to develop its energy sector and infrastructure for the water industry”.

She said ASEAN’s power grid connectivity plan is huge for ASEAN member states who need to explore more energy source options such as hydropower, wind and solar.

“There is the big plan to link all 10 countries to trade in electricity, so we can explore the potential of hydroelectricity as well,” she said.

Based on the Electricity Supply Development Master Plan from the years 2010-2020, Cambodia will have an additional 3173.2 megawatts installed.

Nine hundred megawatts of Cambodia’s future power capacity will come from coal power plants to be built between 2010 and 2018.

Hydropower will make up 1873.2 megawatts of Cambodia’s total energy generated, according to research compiled by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia in 2011.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rann Reuy at [email protected]