The ASEAN-German Energy Programme (AGEP), a jointly implemented programme between the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), is delighted to share the progress update of improving the ASEAN Energy Database System (AEDS). The AEDS is a platform that records the official ASEAN statistic data and related energy news and policies providing the energy landscape of ASEAN and each of its Member States. In this article, the update will highlight the new server hardware for AEDS, which procurement falls under one of AGEP activities.

The ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) and Deutsche Gesellschaft fur International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)  have supported the AEDS enhancement since 2018. Previously through AGEP Phase I, the automation of energy questionnaires verification-compilation into energy balance table (EBT) and web portal development were assisted. As a part of the supports for AEDS digitalisation by AGEP Phase II, a procurement for server hardware was processed in August 2020 and was successfully delivered to ACE’s office in November 2020.

The server features, among others, Xeon Gold computing processors with a total of 20 processing cores, mirrored storage with up to 8 terra byte capacity for performance, and fail-safe protection through storage redundancy. The server’s configuration for virtualisations is on the way, such as applications, interfaces, databases, library, temporary, and monitoring before it is ready to host the improved the AEDS.

This activity aligns with AGEP Phase II’s overall objective, which is to strengthen ACE in its role as a regional centre of excellence for sustainable energy. The improved AEDS is expected to enhanced the ACE team’s efficiency in data collection, recording, and processing. Thus, allowing ACE to focus more on analytics and research helps ACE fulfil its mandate to become the regional think tank, knowledge hub, and energy cooperation catalyst. (JM)