Before this, he had served as the executive director of the Asean Centre for Energy based in Jakarta since January 2015, reporting to the governing council consisting of senior energy leaders from Asean member states.

“He brings with him more than 25 years of experience in the industry, academia and research institutes,” Seda said in a statement.

A professional engineer with a doctoral degree, Sanjayan spent 15 years in the energy industry and 10 years in research and teaching at Kyushu University, Japan, and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

His interest is to continue to engage in strategy and policy research related to sustainable energy development within the Asean region, Seda said.

It said it was confident Sanjayan would be able to spearhead the energy efficiency and renewable energy (RE) agenda in the country, and achieve the RE target of 20% in the national power mix by 2025.

“His background and extensive knowledge of the energy industry are valuable attributes which will be of great relevance to Seda,” it added.