Asia Data Transparency Report 2023

The Asia Data Transparency Report 2023 finds that over half of the surveyed Asian economies have poor or insufficient power sector data transparency, affecting the electricity needs of 684 million people. While high-income economies generally score better, some lower-middle income nations like India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka are demonstrating good practice. The report emphasizes that granular, real-time, and open-access data is essential for grid optimization and evidence-based policymaking to meet decarbonisation targets. It highlights a successful public-private partnership in India between NITI Aayog and the Vasudha Foundation and provides nine practical recommendations for improving data governance, including the use of machine-readable formats and unique identifiers.

• More than half of the assessed economies in Asia exhibit poor or insufficient data transparency, which corresponds to the electricity demand and supply for 684 million people.
• Six economies are identified as demonstrating good practice in data transparency, scoring 'good' or 'excellent': India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.
• Asian economies generally perform poorly regarding publishing lag, geographical granularity, and time granularity, while scoring better on fuel breakdown and ease of access.
• High-quality temporal granularity is rare; only seven economies (Japan, Australia, Bangladesh, Singapore, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and Georgia) provide hourly data, which is necessary for managing renewable energy intermittency.
• Data accessibility is hindered by the use of non-machine-readable formats, with one third of economies providing data as PDFs or scanned images.
• India has improved its data transparency through a partnership between the government think tank NITI Aayog and the non-profit Vasudha Foundation to create a 'one-stop shop' open access data platform.
• The report recommends nine specific improvements for data transparency, including the adoption of machine-readable formats (xlsx, csv, json), the removal of access restrictions, and the implementation of unique identifiers for power plants.

APA

Lee, U., & White, J. (2023). Asia Data Transparency Report 2023. Ember. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Asia-Data-Transparency-2023-PDF-4-MB.pdf

Chicago

Lee, Uni, and Justine White. Asia Data Transparency Report 2023. Ember, 2023. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Asia-Data-Transparency-2023-PDF-4-MB.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lee |first1=Uni |last2=White |first2=Justine |title=Asia Data Transparency Report 2023 |publisher=Ember |date=4 May 2023 |url=https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Asia-Data-Transparency-2023-PDF-4-MB.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lee2023asia, author = {Lee, Uni and White, Justine}, title = {{Asia Data Transparency Report 2023}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2023}, month = may, url = {https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2024/10/Asia-Data-Transparency-2023-PDF-4-MB.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }