The EC-ASEAN COGEN Programme Phase III (COGEN 3) was successfully completed on December 31, 2004. The COGEN 3 Follow-up Activities have been managed by the Main Coordinating Team in collaboration with the ASEAN Country Coordinating Teams for marketing and monitoring of the implemented Full Scale Demonstration Projects (FSDPs). The activities were funded by the European Commission (EC) through the EC-ASEAN ENERGY FACILITY (EAEF).

I would like to commend the excellent collaboration between the EC and the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). COGEN is one of its unique kind that has produced great success to create awareness of proven, clean and efficient cogeneration technologies in ASEAN countries since January 1991. The major achievements are the implementation of FSDPs in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Among these FSDPs, the 14 MW palm oil cogeneration plant (TSH Bio-Energy) in Sabah, East Malaysia is being considered as the first high efficiency palm oil cogeneration plant, implemented in the world by formulating a comprehensive

bio-integration programme . Moreover, the 41 MW high efficiency bagasse-fired cogeneration plant in Thailand (Dan Chang Bio-Energy) is also considered as the first project of this type in ASEAN.

Due to the recent huge increase of oil price, there is an urgent need for all ASEAN countries to promote the use of renewable energy in order to reduce the import of crude oil. The FSDPs implemented by the COGEN 3 are excellent show cases for future projects when dealing with oil prices hike. I strongly believe that such projects should be further implemented in the ASEAN region.

Dr. Weerawat Chantanakome
Executive Director of ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE)