“As the emerging markets have become the primary engine of the global economy, accounting for 57 percent of global growth last year, it is here in Asia, especially the Asean countries where the strongest demand for additional power is taking place,” GE Power’s CEO, Steve Bolze, told journalists on Thursday.

Speaking at the end of a two-day Asean steam power summit, Bolze said Asean countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia were fortunate to own a wide diversity of fossil and renewable energy to secure adequate power generation. “GE power has one of the largest portfolios of steam turbines, ranging from 100 to 1,900 MW to meet the needs of Asean countries,” Bolze noted.

Of upmost importance, he added, countries like Indonesia should optimize in harnessing all of its energy resources so as not to rely too heavily on one or two resources although locally abundant.

“Energy is the national security priority for every country and the key is to provide power that is affordable, accessible, reliable and sustainable,” Bolze said.

Hence, according to GE Power chief economist Marco Annunziata, it is most important for every country to achieve an optimal degree of supply diversification, including imported energy, to reduce the risk of disruptions.

That is why, Annunziata said, even several countries in the Middle East that are enormously rich in hydrocarbon resources, such as the United Arab Emirates, are also building coal-fired power plants.

Last October during President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s working visit to the US, GE Power signed three power projects with Indonesia worth almost US$1 billion that will contribute to an estimated 3 GW of capacity to the country’s ambitious plan to build more than 35 GW of additional power by 2019.

One of the contracts is with PLN Batam, a subsidiary of state-owned electricity provider PLN, which had selected GE’s aero-derivative gas turbine technology for a 500 MW fast power project.

The 20 TM2500 gas turbines will meet Indonesia’s need for quick installation, efficiency, reliability and flexibility. The units are truck-mounted, run on dual-fuel and are fully re-deployable. With almost 17,000 islands, Indonesia needs to meet unique electricity demand for smaller and more localized power-generation solutions.

GE is also currently installing four similar units in Gorontalo, North Sulawesi, which will provide 100 MW of power generation capacity. Each TM2500 generator can produce more than 25 MW of power output, enough power for approximately 25,000 homes.

The other two contracts will evaluate the feasibility of developing and investing in power projects using combined cycle technology: The first, with PT Indonesia Power, another subsidiary of PLN, for a minimum power target of 500 MW, and the second, with independent power producer PT Cikarang Listrindo, for a minimum target of 1,000 MW.

Bolze conveyed good news to coal producing countries, especially Indonesia as the world’s largest seaborne-exporter of thermal coal, by forecasting that coal, which supplies 50 percent of the world’s power, will continue to be a major fuel for electricity generation.

“About 25 percent of all future capacity additions will be coal or oil-fired steam power plants,” Bolze said, adding that new technology has able to improve the efficiency and carbon emission of coal-fired power stations. GE Power, which recorded over US$30 billion in revenue globally last year, claims that GE technology is responsible for more than 20 percent of Indonesia’s electricity generation, and more than 8 GW of electricity is generated using GE gas turbines.

GE also owns a boiler manufacturing and service facility in Surabaya, a turbine service facility in Bandung, an oil and gas equipment manufacturing plant in Batam, a lightbulb manufacturing plant in Yogyakarta and a transformer and air-insulated switchgear equipment manufacturing factory in Jakarta.

In addition, the GE business group is also a major supplier of locomotives to state-owned PT Kereta Api Indonesia and healthcare technologies and services. Given the importance of health care for the country, GE relocated the headquarters of its healthcare business in Asean to Jakarta earlier this year.