Blue Circle is a Singapore-based wind and solar energy development company with projects in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.

According to the Paris-based International Energy Agency, the global cost of subsidising energy consumption, mostly in developing countries, is about $US500 billion ($A592.8 billion) a year.

"Current cheaper oil should reduce this bill to about US$400 billion a year, leaving governments with the choice of continuing oil, gas and electricity subsidies to encourage consumption or dismantle these very costly programs for national budgets and restore economic fairness," Duguet said.

"The choice is particularly important for South East Asia's high growth and fuel dependant economies.

"Energy demand from Association of South East Asian Nation's 600 million inhabitants has risen two and a half times since 1990 and is now equivalent to three quarters of the energy demand of India.

"Indonesia alone spent $29.2 billion in 2013 to make fossil fuels cheaper for final consumers.

"Total subsidies from three other ASEAN countries - Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia - amounted to over US$10 billion for 2013, according to IEA's World Energy Outlook.

"The electricity support schemes have in return required subsidies of power generation fuels to keep state-owned utilities financially viable."

According to Duguet, the subsidies imposed in a lot of Asian nations have led to major imbalances and banned utilities from investing in new technologies and capacity building.

This in turn makes it hard for renewables to compete with subsidised fossil fuel-based electricity by distorting any competitive advantage these resources might have.

"Low income earners have to be protected against wild gyrations of fuel prices of course, but giving consumers the good price signal is crucial for the future of renewables," Duguet said.

"The current plunge of oil prices will be one of the very last chances to implement true energy prices around South East Asia and enable renewables to compete directly with non-subsidised fuels.

"Wind resources, even though not evenly distributed in the region, are the most cost competitive and easy to deploy of today's renewable energy sources.

"Recent economic weaknesses in China, Europe and Japan, coupled with market share war amongst oil producers, have pushed fuel prices to unexpected lows which may not last long before world economic growth resumes.

"Bringing back energy prices transparency is what renewable power needs to thrive in a future low carbon world."