Theoretically, the concept of digitalization would promote energy sustainability, because it improves energy efficiency through behavioral changes related to energy use. However, it may also conversely cause excessive energy consumption if not managed well. Nowadays, digitalization has been widely adopted in ASEAN, not only in the economic sector but also in social activities. This development is believed to improve the energy efficiency towards energy sustainability in the long-run. As digitalization is closely related to energy use behavior that will consequently promote energy efficiency and sustainability, comprehensive statistical analysis is essential to uncover the truth and debunk incorrect potential energy consumption behavioral patterns of digitalization and its effects on energy consumption. This study investigates the impact of digitalization on both total and disaggregated energy consumption. We use a balance panel dataset that covers 1990-2018 in five major ASEAN countries. The Cross-Sectional Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) approach is employed to estimate both long run and short run elasticity of digitalization. The results conclude that digitalization does indeed bring down energy consumption levels in total and in all disaggregated sources. Hence, more investment into increasing and enhancing digital infrastructure is recommended towards achieving energy sustainability strategic objectives.
