New report by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the NewClimate Institute, published under the project Clean, Affordable and Secure Energy for Southeast Asia (CASE), examines why and how electricity planning in Southeast Asia should move beyond GDP-centred growth towards sufficiency, affordability and well-being. 

The report Powering Wellbeing: Rethinking Electricity Planning Beyond GDP in Southeast Asia examines the limitations of the GDP-centric development model that continues to guide electricity planning across Southeast Asia, with a focus on Indonesia, Viet Nam, Thailand and the Philippines.  

While these economies have expanded electricity generation rapidly and achieved near-universal access, electricity planning has largely remained oriented towards maximising economic growth and industrial output. However, high electricity consumption does not necessarily translate into reliable and affordable electricity for the households and essential public services that underpin everyday well-being. Across the region, the report finds that the well-being gap, i.e. the shortfall between the electricity that reaches households and essential services and what is required to meet basic needs, is increasingly shaped by allocation and affordability, rather than by a lack of overall electricity supply.

To make these gaps visible, the report adopts a bottom-up modelling approach grounded in the Decent Living Standards (DLS) framework. It calculates a “Sufficiency Floor” of electricity demand: the minimum level of electricity required to secure basic well-being across households, primary healthcare and basic education.  

The analysis estimates this requirement at approximately 620–1,270 kWh per capita per year, with a central estimate of around 945 kWh. In aggregate, three of the four countries already meet or exceed this threshold, suggesting that the core challenge is often not insufficient generation capacity, but the way electricity is allocated across sectors. The report also situates these findings within broader debates on well-being, sufficiency and Beyond GDP, and proposes a policy toolkit to help reorient electricity governance towards the guaranteed delivery of reliable and affordable electricity for essential needs. 

Key insights include: 

• The region’s well-being gap is increasingly shaped by allocation and affordability challenges, rather than by a lack of overall electricity supply. Even where electricity consumption appears sufficient in aggregate, households and essential public services can still face unreliable supply and unaffordable access. 
• GDP-centred electricity planning obscures disparities in distribution and service quality. Standard indicators such as GDP per capita and aggregate electrification rates can mask persistent deprivation in households, schools and healthcare facilities.
• The core challenge is not insufficient generation capacity, but the way electricity is allocated across sectors. In three of the four countries assessed, national electricity consumption already meets or exceeds the estimated sufficiency floor in aggregate.
• A consistent allocation gap emerges when sufficiency is compared with current consumption patterns. Sectoral distribution remains heavily skewed towards industrial and commercial use, leaving households and essential services to receive less than is needed. 
• Electricity governance should shift from aggregate economic growth towards the guaranteed delivery of a sufficiency floor. The report identifies the need for Beyond GDP frameworks, stronger statutory protections for essential services, and targeted tariff reforms to secure reliable and affordable electricity. 

The full report is available for download at: ​​Powering Wellbeing: Rethinking Electricity Planning Beyond GDP in Southeast Asia