Highlights
- Energy efficiency remains ASEAN’s most cost-effective strategy to curb rising building-sector emissions, reduce grid investment needs, and strengthen long-term energy security amid rapidly growing urbanisation and cooling demand.
- ESCOs can play a central role in enabling building retrofits by providing integrated, performance-based services covering audits, financing, installation, and Measurement and Verification (M&V), reducing complexity and making energy savings more bankable.
- Despite many registered ESCOs in ASEAN, actual project deployment remains limited due to weak enforcement of EE regulations, inconsistent accreditation, and limited access to finance—especially for smaller firms.
- Public-sector restrictions on performance-based contracting significantly hinder ESCO market growth; enabling ESCO access to government buildings can unlock stable demand, strengthen creditworthiness, and catalyse investment.
- On-bill financing holds potential to expand EE uptake for underserved segments, but requires major regulatory reforms, utility engagement, and tailored market assessments before ASEAN countries can adopt it at scale.