Catalyzing Change Through Regional Strategies and Smart Solutions: A Capacity Development Event for Small Island Developing States in the Pacific

The Emerging Areas Energy Sector team of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) hosted four workshops at the Joy Nostalg Hotel in Manila, Philippines. The event brought together policymakers, regulators, utilities, and development partners from ADB’s developing member countries—particularly Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS)—to share knowledge, foster regional cooperation on clean energy transitions, support decarbonization, explore AI applications in power utilities, and provide practical tools and cross-sector insights for effective development interventions.

Darren Young

Darren has 30 years of experience in IT and telecom, 10 years in management consulting, and 20 years in the industry. He has led strategy work to help define new operating models as well as large-scale technology data and system deployments. Darren takes a client-centric approach, focuses on specific problems and challenges in the client's environment, and looks to address and solve these with particular cases or broader systematic change programs.

Darren is a Partner with Baringa Partners LLP – focusing on their Strategy, Digital, and Technology Consulting projects.

Digital, Data Science, AI: Operationalizing Innovations in/for the Power and Energy Sector

The webinar session presented real-world case studies demonstrating the practical applications of data science, AI, and digitalization to power generation and distribution utilities for increased reliability and efficiency in operations and customer service. It also looked into data science and AI for developing markets, with an emphasis on power pricing/trends and how data could support the challenges around better costs.