How energy is relevant to our daily lives

Written by Rano Iskandar on May 4, 2017. Posted in lifestyle, Social News

Dato Paduka Hj Jamain bin Hj Julaihi, Permanent Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office with members of the French Bruneian Business Association and invited speakers yesterday

The man of the hour, Brandon Ng, co-founder of AMPD Energy

Thank you for the invitation, French Bruneian Business Association, for the interesting dialogue and forum on “Energy Transition & Innovation”. The event was held at Radisson Hotel and the guest of honour was Dato Paduka Hj Jamain bin Hj Julaihi, Permanent Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office.

Of course, the main highlight of the event was the invited speaker, Brandon Ng, a Bruneian born who is based in Hong Kong. Now why is he the highlight of the show? Because of his amazing credentials this year alone. His company Ampd Energy exhibited their product at the CES 2017 earlier this January. CES is one of the biggest innovative showcase that I know of and it stands for Consumer Technology Association where you will see giants like Apple, Playstation and many more. This is also a great platform for start-ups to showcase their prototype or products to consumer ends.

Secondly, Brandon Ng is listed as “Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 list under the Industry, Manufacturing and Energy sector. Now that’s an amazing accolade or resume to have in the year 2017 alone. That says a lot about Brandon’s brighter future. Ok, let’s not get carried away. Let’s talk more about the forum that took place yesterday.

The guest of honour mentioned something interesting that will hopefully change the landscape when it comes to energy consumption. He said that the Energy Industry Department at the Prime Minister’s Office and Brunei National Energy Research Institute (BNERI) have completed a draft on Renewable Energy Act which will hopefully be implemented by 2018. Dato Paduka Hj Jamain also shared how Brunei ranks one of the worst in terms of energy consumption per capita. So it’s important on how newer frameworks and policies will help to reduce energy consumption that can benefit the country.

We are definitely in the transition period after the launched of the Energy White Paper back in 2014 where Brunei has set a target of 10% of electricity generation from renewable resources by 2035. That’s 18 years away from now and let’s not get complacent.

I like the presentation by Vincent Dutel, the CEO of Total E&P Borneo BV who shared on climate change being affected by energy efficiency. We might be thinking things like pollution and such in contributing climate change but even energy consumption especially in the oil and gas industry can play a huge role.

He also shared some tips on how turn the oil and gas industry sustainable for stakeholders in a long run. Firstly is to have cost effective measures such as cost reduction. For instance, Total’s latest project, the Maharaja Lela South Project, performed some cost cutting measures and saved at least BND 400 million in cost alone. The previous estimated project costs BND 1.3 billion.

Secondly is to implement integration by using renewable resources. For instance, turning gas into electricity or even using solar energy to create electricity. Thirdly, simply be innovative by creating cutting edge technology to make a project or the company more sustainable.

Brandon Ng shared his ready-to-be-marketed product the AMPD Silo, an energy storage for solar, that will change the landscape of energy consumption, replacing current diesel generators and even high powered UPS.

The AMPD Silo uses advanced, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries to store electricity. They will come to good effect when the main source of electricity fails and the AMPD Silo will restore electricity in a matter of a second. I believe this product is so ideal in places such as hospitals or places that has huge servers and such.

I shall talk more on Brandon Ng on my future post and I can understand why he sees a better future being based in Hong Kong as he will be able to grow faster in getting his product out in the global market. Being in Brunei may bring new opportunities but should he wants to grow bigger in a faster rate, places like Hong Kong would be ideal for his business venture and plus it makes more economic sense.

Thank you once again for FBBA for the invitation and thank you for making this event possible.