APEC Project Database

Project Title

APEC Workshop on Promoting Digital Transformation for Energy Efficiency

Project Year

2023

Project Number

EWG_204_2023A

Project Session

Session 2

Project Type

Standard

Project Status

Completed Project

Project No.

EWG_204_2023A

Project Title

APEC Workshop on Promoting Digital Transformation for Energy Efficiency

Project Status

Completed Project

Fund Account

APEC Support Fund

Sub-fund

ASF: Energy Efficiency, Low Carbon and Energy Resiliency Measures (EELCER)

Project Year

2023

Project Session

Session 2

APEC Funding

99,896

Co-funding Amount

Total Project Value

99,896

Sponsoring Forum

Energy Working Group (EWG)

Topics

Energy

Committee

SOM Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE)

Other Fora Involved

Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved

Proposing Economy(ies)

Viet Nam

Co-Sponsoring Economies

China; Japan; Chinese Taipei; United States

Expected Start Date

01/02/2024

Expected Completion Date

31/12/2024

Project Proponent Name 1

PHAM Quynh Mai

Job Title 1

Deputy Director General

Organization 1

Ministry of Industry and Trade, Viet Nam

Telephone 1

+84-24-22205522

Email 1

MaiPQ@moit.gov.vn

Project Proponent Name 2

Not Applicable

Job Title 2

Not Applicable

Organization 2

Not Applicable

Telephone 2

+84-24-22205412

Email 2

htapec@gmail.com

Declaration

PHAM Quynh Mai

Project Summary

According to the IEA, digital transformation in energy would have very positive impacts on energy efficiency, contributing to APEC’s commitments to pursue energy efficiency, sustainability, stability and security. The implementation faces with challenges such as lack of awareness, experiences, risks of new security and privacy, increasing costs, disrupting markets, businesses and employment, etc. Viet Nam would like to propose a 1.5 day hybrid workshop to promote digital transformation for energy efficiency through sharing information, experiences, providing capacity building to APEC economies. Governments’ officials and businesses will be main beneficiaries of the project as well as potential agents of change.

The workshop is expected to be held in the 1st quarter of 2024 in Viet Nam.

List of all project outputs

1. Pre-Workshop Survey
2. 2 –day workshop
3. Workshop Summary Report

Relevance

Benefits to Region: According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), digital transformation is increasingly having a great impact on energy demand and supply – household, transport and industry. It is estimated that more than 1 billion households and 11 billion smart appliances could participate in interconnected electricity systems by 2040, which would contribute to reducing energy use by 10% by using real-time data to improve operational efficiency, avoiding USD 270 billion of investment in new electricity infrastructure. In supply, digital transformation significantly affect how energy is produced – “from smart oil fields to interconnected grids, and increasingly, renewable power. Digital technologies could help integrate higher shares of variable renewables into the grid by better matching energy demand to solar and wind supplies. Energy supply sectors also stand to gain from greater productivity and efficiency, as well as improved safety for workers”. On the other hand, digital transformation also triggers challenges such as new security and privacy risks, disrupting markets, businesses and employment. Besides, there remain difficulties in implementing digital transformation in the interest of energy efficiency since it might bear associated costs, of aggregating all of the potential energy savings from across the economy, which would make investment in energy in general, energy efficiency challenging.

While digital transformation in energy is of increasing importance, governments should play a more active role in enabling a favorable environment in terms of policy promulgation and implementation to ensure that the transformation produces positive impacts and avoids negatives ones in the long term. It is up to the governments’ awareness, capacity and resources to pursue this long-term goal. The project would focus on raising the awareness as well as sharing information and experiences for APEC member economies’ governments especially developing ones to address challenges in implementing digital transformation for energy efficiently in the interest of stability, sustainability and security.

Eligibility and Fund Priorities: The project seeks funding from the EELCER. It is eligible to and support the priorities of the Sub Fund since it focuses on providing capacity for APEC developing economies as well as pursuing the objective of energy efficiency, which might significantly contribute to achieving APEC's aggregate energy intensity reduction goal of 45% by 2035 which was agreed at the APEC Leaders Meeting in Honolulu in 2011.

Capacity Building: This project supports APEC’s capacity building goal since it significantly contributes to providing capacity building to governments’ officials in realizing digital transformation for energy efficiency, attaining sustainable growth and equitable development in the Asia-Pacific region.

Objectives

The project aims to provide capacity building to APEC member economies’ governments, especially developing ones through sharing information, experiences in addressing challenges, implementing digital transformation in energy sector, in the interest of energy efficiency.

Alignment

Beneficiaries and Outputs

Outputs:

1. A Pre-Workshop Survey

The PO will deliver a pre-workshop survey/questionaire to EWG and EGEEC focal points to seek their support in providing inputs for the workshop proceeding.

2. A 2-Day Workshop

The 2 full day workshop (8 hours per day) is proposed to take place in the 3rd quarter in 2024 (possibly in early July 2024) in Hanoi, Viet Nam. We would like to propose a physical workshop in accordance with the current context.

All APEC member economies’ representatives will be invited to attend as speakers or participants.

The purpose of the workshop is provide capacity building to APEC member economies’ governments, especially developing ones through sharing information, experiences in addressing challenges, implementing digital transformation in energy sector, in the interest of energy efficiency. Following the workshop, the post-workshop evaluation will be implemented to collect information about speakers’/participants’ participation to measure the efficiency, effectiveness and performance of the workshop.
The tentative agenda might cover the following issues: (i) an overview of digital transformation in energy; (ii) opportunities and challenges; (iii) potential impacts and risks of digitalization in energy; (iv) approaches, tools and mechanism to promote digitalization in energy; (v) sharing experiences, best practices, case studies; (vi) discussion and recommendations.
The detailed agenda will be developed after the PO work with the consultant.

3. Workshop Summary Report

The Report will contain presentations provided by speakers as well as present substantive content such as the best practices, recommendations. At least 6 recommendations will also be presented in the Report.
The Workshop Summary Report is expected to be 15 page at minimum for the main content. The Workshop Summary Report will cover: (i) an introduction; (ii) background; (iii) key issues covered in the workshop;(iv) recommendations. There are possibly annexes but not counted in the main 15 pages).

The Workshop Summary Report will be published as an APEC publication. The publication is targeted to the speakers and participants of the workshop as well as non-participants who do not attend directly the workshop for reference.

Outcomes:

- Increased participant knowledge on digital transformation for energy efficiency;
- Increased understanding regarding practical approaches to promote digital transformation for energy efficiency;
- Increased knowledge dissemination regarding possible cooperation areas on digital transformation for energy efficiency;
- The outcomes will be measured by a post-workshop evaluation, details as in Section C, item No. 11. The post-workshop evaluation will collect information based on the format agreed in the Guidebook

Beneficiaries:

The project will primarily aim to target:

- Governments’ official in relation to energy sector (those involved in policies, implementation, with at least 1 year experience).
- Related energy associations representing business and business representatives in energy sector.

Secondary beneficiaries might include:
- Academic representatives/think tank in energy research.

Dissemination

The workshop’s documents will be shared by PO via online drive before the Workshop, and made available in the APEC Meeting Document Database after the Workshop. The Workshop Summary Report (minimum of 15 excluding annexes) will be shared on the APEC Website as an APEC publication.

Other Vietnamese Ministries’ websites (e.g.: the Ministry of Industry and Trade) could also be used to disseminate the information with a hyperlink to the APEC website.

A press release on the Workshop will be published in Vietnam’s media mass (Viet Nam News, Viet Nam News Agency, Economics Times, etc.,). The press released will be consulted with the APEC Secretariat Program Director before issuance to ensure compliance with APEC Branding Policy. It will also be sent to business associations, research centers, etc. to attract attention to the event to encourage people to visit the documents online. There is no intention to sell outputs arising from this project.

All the reports and related communication materials will comply with APEC Publications, IP, and Logo Guidelines. The workshop summary report will be published as an APEC publication. It will be noted that personal data (name, gender, economy, social media handles, name of employer, etc.) of project participants (including speakers, experts, and contractors) does not appear in any APEC Publication or APEC project report (such as Summary or Final Reports) produced in relation to this project.

Gender

The gender issue is seriously taken into account by the project proponent. Women are involved in the development of this proposal and both men and women will get equal opportunities to participate in the project implementation including in the process of preparatory stage, consultation and direct labour, etc. In addition, to address gender concerns and make sure that men and women are engaged efficiently in the workshop, the evaluation form delivered at the end of the workshop will include information on gender to aggregate for project assessment.
Female participation as speakers or delegates to the workshop will be encouraged based on the highest efficiency of the project. The organizers will make sure that women are most encouraged and created favorable conditions to take part in and contribute to the workshop by disseminating information and invitation to as many women as possible. For example, invitations will be sent through APEC EWG, and PPWE (Policy partnership on Women and the Economy), female business associations of Viet Nam and APEC member economies if available to invite and draw their attention to the workshop.
Female leaders will be prioritized to be invited as speakers to the workshop. Among other criteria such as expertise, experiences, contributions, female leaders from enterprises, associations related to energy will be prioritized to join and be funded to attend the workshop. It will target to reach at least 40% to 50% of female participation in this project if efficient. The female speakers are also aimed at least 40 – 50%.
PO is committed to collecting sex-disaggregated data for all speakers and participants at the project event. This data will be included when submitting a Completion Report to the Secretariat upon completion of the project, as well as providing guidance to future POs on their own gender parity targets. This data will be used to assess compliance with the project’s gender targets at the conclusion of the project, with performance data shared with APEC members.
The project is expected to contribute to the pillars: "Skills, capacity building, and health" and "innovation and technology" since the project focuses on digital transformation in energy for energy efficiency, which requires improving knowledge and capacity in implementing innovation and technology as well as skills and capacity building to implement digital transformation.

Gender Participation Target Goals
As participants: Male (50%) Female (50%)
As speakers: Male (70%) Female (30%)

Five Pillars of the Gender Criteria

Skills, Capacity Building, and Health
Innovation and Technology

Work Plan