With its accelerating economic growth, Southeast Asia is rapidly urbanizing. This trend creates a global issue of the potential of increasingly unsustainable cities in this region. If Southeast Asian cities chose to continue using traditional urban planning thinking, it would accelerate the problems of global warming and climate change beyond current estimates. Urban Sustainable Development Planning therefore is a key topic for a lot of areas in Southeast Asia. under the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC) 2025, the ASEAN Sustainable Urbanisation Strategy (ASUS) has identified priority areas and actions for sustainable urbanization for cities within the ASEAN community. 26 pilot projects have been earmarked under the ASEAN Smart Cities Network by funding from financial institutions such as the World Bank, ADB and AIIB.

However, municipalities face difficulties to launch smart city projects because of all the required expertise on finding the balance between economic competitiveness, resource efficiency (energy, water & waste), transport mobility, quality of life and environmental sustainability (low carbon, clean air). The interconnect complexity of urban systems requires adopting new technologies, innovations and policies. Singapore is a very good example regarding urban planning. The smart city has announced an ambitious master plan in 2019 and $900 Million set aside for Urban Solutions and Sustainability from 2016-2020.

EDF is working with municipalities, real estate developers and utilities to optimize their investment in the energy infrastructure for new urban developments or redevelopments. This is supported by the use decision-support tools and competences in the fields of renewable power, district cooling, energy efficiency, e-mobility, air pollution and their link with quality of life (security, affordability, comfort, accessibility).

EDF R&D has a proven track record with major cities in the world (Singapore, Shanghai, Moscow, Lyon) and is constantly improving its know-how to provide the best solutions and decision-support in planning energy for sustainable and smart cities.

In Singapore EDF Lab is working with the government agencies (HDB) and local universities (NUS, NTU, SUTD, SIT, ESSEC), to root a strong expertise adapted to the Singaporean and South East Asian context in the field of Smart Cities with the development of urban analytics and decision-making tool for energy planning.

The use of fossil fuels largely predominates today in South-East Asia with almost 75% of the electricity mix, and new coal and gas-fired power generation capacity increasing every year, driven by low costs and local availability. Hydropower accounts for more than 15% of the regional electricity mix and has potential that can still be exploited. Finally, wind and solar power are beginning to show sufficient competitiveness to be integrated into energy plans, but massive integration of intermittent renewables comes with challenges for the grids and markets.
Concurrently, in some remote areas, such as the many islands of the Indonesian or Philippine archipelago, or the rural areas of Burma, tens of millions of people still have no or very limited access to electricity. States are therefore implementing electrification plans to cover the entire population in the coming decades.

EDF Lab Asia Pacific, strong of the core expertise of EDF Group, is therefore working on developing innovative solutions to integrate variable renewables into distribution grids or combined with other sources for off-grid applications. Whether in urban contexts or in remote islands, the challenge remain the same, provide a sustainable, affordable and reliable electricity. 

EDF Lab is operating in Singapore the MASERA demonstration project, a hybrid microgrid composed of solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles and diesel generators, co-developped with NTU. 

In the PRIMO project, EDF Lab is partnering with TUMCREATE and SIT to develop the management system of the future microgrid to be implemented in the Punggol Digital District.

Beyond research, the team is also supporting other Business Units of EDF group in the design and engineering of microgrid projects in Myanmar and Indonesia. 
 

There is little doubt that Southeast Asia could be the area where a revolution in mobility is needed. Most countries in the region are still struggling with congestion, rapid urbanization, and deteriorated life quality. United Nation report points out that one of key sources for urban air pollution is transportation in Southeast Asia. In Jakarta, annual losses caused by the city’s traffic jam are about S$6.5 billion. Greener vehicles such as electric vehicles (EVs), autonomous vehicles (AVs), connected vehicles, shared mobility services, and other disruptive innovations are believed to transform the mobility industry and urban landscape in the long run. EV markets are different across the region but the trends are similar as governments taking actions to push for greater EV adoption. Singapore has announced ambitious targets to gradually phase out internal combustion engine cars and shift to vehicle running on cleaner energy by 2040. In India, the government targets 30% EV on road, with the focus on 2- and 3-wheeler segment.

EDF Lab Asia Pacific e-mobility activities include technology and market analysis on EVs and AVs, aiming to provide energy solutions for future mobility in the region. Both quantitative and qualitative research are conducted to understand the related services and infrastructure, with a focus on charging and mobility behaviour.