Research findings Assessment on Power Sector Data Transparency in Asia

This report assesses power sector data transparency across 39 Asian economies, evaluating them against six criteria: time granularity, publishing lag, geographic granularity, fuel breakdown, ease of access, and additional data. The analysis finds that overall transparency is insufficient to support a coal-to-clean electricity transition in the region, with more than half of the economies scoring poorly.

• Data transparency in Asia is generally poor, with 24 out of 39 economies categorized as having 'insufficient or poor' transparency. This lack of data affects the electricity needs of 684 million people.
• There is a general trend where higher income economies exhibit better data transparency than lower income economies. High-income economies have a median overall score of 3 (acceptable), while lower and upper middle income economies both have a median score of 2 (insufficient).
• Certain lower-middle income economies, specifically India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, have outperformed all upper middle income economies in transparency scores due to progress made since 2020.
• Asian economies struggle significantly with time granularity, publishing lag, and geographic granularity. Only seven economies (Japan, Australia, Bangladesh, Singapore, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and Georgia) provide hourly data, and 75% of economies fail to make data available in a timely manner.
• Fuel breakdown and ease of access are the strongest criteria for the region. 40% of economies provide a full fuel breakdown, and 50% make datasets openly accessible via machine-readable formats like xlsx, csv, or public APIs.
• Geographic granularity is lacking, with only 20% of economies providing plant- or unit-level data, which is considered necessary for understanding power system operational status and utilization rates.
• Five economies were identified as having no available data: Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, and New Caledonia.

APA

Ember (2023). Research findings Assessment on Power Sector Data Transparency in Asia. https://ember-energy.org/chapter/research-findings/

Chicago

Ember. Research findings Assessment on Power Sector Data Transparency in Asia. 2023. https://ember-energy.org/chapter/research-findings/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Ember |title=Research findings Assessment on Power Sector Data Transparency in Asia |date=4 May 2023 |url=https://ember-energy.org/chapter/research-findings/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ember2023research, author = {{Ember}}, title = {{Research findings Assessment on Power Sector Data Transparency in Asia}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2023}, month = may, url = {https://ember-energy.org/chapter/research-findings/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }