Session 1.1: Energy Infrastructure Resilience

Global supply chain disruptions, extreme weather events, and the rapid integration of variable renewable energy (VRE) are placing unprecedented strain on power systems across Asia and the Pacific. This session focuses on practical strategies to build and strengthen grid infrastructure resilience, drawing on the experiences of utilities, development partners, and research institutions from across the region.

Presenters will share forward-thinking views and concrete examples of how countries can maintain system reliability while scaling up renewable deployment—including lessons from the UK's clean energy transition on limiting grid disruptions to unlock VRE capacity, a landmark five-year, nine-country assessment of ASEAN's decarbonised power sector that reframes energy security as a collective regional network property rather than a nationally hoarded resource, and the case for pumped storage hydropower as strategic firming infrastructure critical to building energy self-reliance in an era of increasing geopolitical and climate volatility.