The Role of Businesses in APAC's Energy Transition

Jimmy Yam is the Vice President, Sales for Eaton Electrical sector, East Asia. He has served in this role since 2016. Yam is responsible for driving the growth of Eaton’s electrical business in the East Asia commercial organization, which includes Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the ASEAN region. He manages the region to drive demand, orders, customer service, logistics and warehousing. Yam spent more than 26 years in the information technology industry and held senior regional sales and management roles for multinational companies including Dell, IBM, and EMC.

In a conversation with Prisila, Correspondent, Asia Business Outlook Magazine, Jimmy shares his views on Eaton’s electrical business. During the conversation he also discussed APAC's solar deployment journey and how turning enterprises into prosumers may increase APAC's energy resilience.

1. What are the priorities for Eaton’s electrical business?

Our goal has always been to help businesses manage their power effectively, and improve the quality of life through sustainable power management solutions. There are two key trends that are transforming our relationship with power. Firstly, electricity demand is surging, led by trends such as digitalization and electrification of transport. Secondly, companies worldwide are recognising the need to move towards a more sustainable future, whether by increasing renewables adoption, or using more energy-efficient technologies.

With these trends in mind, we are focused on helping organizations meet their energy needs in a low-carbon future through what we call the ‘Everything as a Grid’ approach. As renewables deployment grows, the energy system will become more complex. At the same time, this presents opportunities for organizations to help generate, store and distribute energy, which will be crucial to scaling the large-scale deployment of renewables, and make a greener energy future a reality.

As we push into the future, we will continue to develop and improve our software and technology to help our customers achieve safety, resiliency and reliability in their power networks.

2. According to you, what are the emerging markets that make sense for international business growth?

Southeast Asia (SEA) is at a crucial point in its energy transition journey, presenting opportunities for infrastructure and power management solutions providers to help chart a more sustainable, digital future.

In SEA, many markets are still heavily dependent on traditional and centralized energy systems. Amidst the global energy crunch and impact of climate change, governments across the region are putting sustainable development goals high on their agenda. Businesses are also on the lookout for ways to better manage energy costs and optimize its usage. This is especially important for large power consumers, such as manufacturing and utilities facilities.

Within the region, one area that we are keeping a close eye on is the data center industry. Data centers are the lifeblood of the digital economy, but are also known to be energy guzzlers and have a large carbon footprint. According to Kearney, it is predicted that SEA’s data center colocation market will grow by 16.5 percent over the next five to seven years. We’re working closely with our partners to help customers build greener data centers through technologies such as grid-interactive uninterruptible power systems (UPS) and intelligent power monitoring software.

3. Why are enterprises in a unique position to deliver on the net-zero emissions agenda?

Governments and businesses worldwide have committed to net-zero targets, including countries such as Singapore, Vietnam, and multinational corporations like Amazon and Walmart. In order to meet these targets, we will need to significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and offset remaining emissions. This entails a multi-faceted approach, ranging from reducing energy consumption, to utilizing energy-efficient design and carbon offsets.

In particular, increasing the adoption of low-carbon energy sources, such as wind and solar, is a key aspect of net-zero pathways. However, it is not feasible to rely solely on governments and energy providers to scale the deployment of renewables, while maintaining energy costs and accessibility.

With advancements in energy storage and grid technology, enterprises now have the resources to help generate renewable energy at scale. Industrial, commercial buildings and similar sites can make use of underutilized spaces such as rooftops to install solar photovoltaic systems. Energy storage and grid-interactive uninterruptible power systems can help to mitigate the variability of intermittent renewable power sources, to ensure the availability of energy as and when needed. In addition, governments have been investing in initiatives to promote the adoption of renewables and encourage the shift towards a decentralized energy system. By reimagining the role of buildings as electric grids, enterprises can act as “all-in-one” energy hubs to help support the integration of renewables to power our rising demand for energy.

"Power management monitoring software can help facilities managers visualize their entire power infrastructure and provide recommendations for preventative maintenance through predictive analytics."

4. Where we are in APAC's solar deployment journey, and provide an outline of the factors that will encourage large-scale solar power deployment.

Solar deployment in APAC has been growing steadily - in 2021, solar installed capacity in the region increased by approximately 19 percent compared to the year before. However, there has been varying levels of successful deployment in the region due to factors such as geography and infrastructure readiness. For instance, Vietnam has the highest solar power generation capacity in SEA, but is facing challenges due to inadequate grids and regulations.

The combination of factors contributing to the success of large-scale solar deployment will differ for each market. In general, some key factors will include:

• Ensuring that grid infrastructure is able to handle increased complexity and variability arising from the integration of renewables, such as the availability of reliable transmission networks and energy storage
• Adequate financing to accelerate renewable energy initiatives, technology and infrastructure development
• Skills and talent development to facilitate the integration of renewables at scale
• Knowledge sharing across industries and markets to leverage and encourage the adoption of best practices

5. What are the reasons contributing to poor electrical power quality in a power system?

Power outages and disturbances can occur when the power network is unable to handle sudden voltage fluctuations and interruptions. This could arise from reasons ranging from equipment failure, overload due to a lightning strike, adding or stopping of heavy loads. These interruptions can be costly, resulting in damage to valuable IT equipment, lost revenue, and may also risk workers’ safety. In South Asia, where blackouts occur frequently, The World Bank estimates that the economic costs of power distortions is equivalent to 4 - 7% of national GDP a year.

To ensure a reliable, steady power supply at the facility level, organizations should monitor the health of their electrical infrastructure and voltage supply regularly. Power management monitoring software can help facilities managers visualize their entire power infrastructure and provide recommendations for preventative maintenance through predictive analytics. Investing in robust power protection solutions, such as uninterruptible power systems (UPS), can also help facilities managers ensure that when utility power fails, this will provide sufficient backup power to allow critical equipment to shut down gracefully, or be kept operational until a secondary power source comes online.

6. How turning enterprises into prosumers may increase APAC's energy resilience while also making the grid more reliable and accessible to everybody.

In this new energy paradigm where enterprises are able to generate clean energy and sell it back to the grid, this will unlock opportunities for greater energy resilience and accessibility.

Allowing enterprises to take up the role of prosumers provides a financial incentive for them to participate in the energy transition. With the ability to produce and store energy, they are able to become self-sufficient energy providers and reduce their reliance on the grid. This helps to alleviate the burden, inefficiency, and instability of traditional power grids. For instance, businesses can lessen the impact of power disruptions such as blackouts, extreme weather events, or even cyber-attacks on energy providers. Manufacturing and industrial facilities can also avoid peak usage charges by using energy from on-site energy resources during these periods.

This will have to be accompanied by government action to help tackle teething issues during the energy transition, especially in communities which are heavily dependent on coal and gas for affordable energy. For example, educating businesses, modernizing grid infrastructure and helping communities tide through higher electricity prices during the energy transition - which is predicted to drop due to lower operating costs of low-emissions sources. This will send a strong signal for enterprises to help realize the potential of a decentralized energy future.