SINGAPORE (Oct 25): Singapore will work closely with Asean member states during its 2027 chairmanship to advance the Asean Power Grid (APG), including efforts to establish a regional submarine power cable framework and strengthen cross-border renewable energy (RE) trading.
Singapore’s Energy Market Authority chief executive Puah Kok Keong said key priorities would be to address legal, regulatory and commercial issues affecting regional electricity connectivity, while developing a common framework for Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to support RE investments across Southeast Asia.
Puah said discussions on the Asean submarine power cable framework were underway, with Singapore hoping to move the initiative towards an agreement and adoption by next year.
“We will want to work very closely with all the Asean member states to further move this Asean subsea power cable framework along, and hopefully, we can come to a conclusion and get countries to agree to adopt this submarine power cable framework by next year,” he said at a media briefing held in conjunction with the 19th edition of the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW).
He said the APG could strengthen regional energy security and reliability by allowing countries to draw electricity from neighbouring markets during supply disruptions, while connecting RE resources to areas with growing demand.
However, regulatory certainty and commercial viability remained critical, given the substantial upfront investments required for power generation facilities and subsea interconnectors.
“Both the importing country and the exporting countries, in order to facilitate the projects to take off, must give this kind of long-term regulatory certainty to the developers.
“Otherwise, the risks are too high. Developers will think they may not be able to recoup their investments over this long period of time,” he said, noting that investments may require 20 to 30 years to recover.
Puah said technological improvements and declining costs of solar, wind, subsea cables and battery energy storage systems had made regional interconnection increasingly feasible, although countries still needed to coordinate regulations and ensure electricity remained affordable.
The regional REC framework is also intended to ensure that renewable electricity traded across borders is properly accounted for and to prevent double counting of its environmental attributes.
Puah cited the Laos-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore (LTMS) Power Integration Project as evidence that multilateral electricity trading was possible, with Phase Two allowing Singapore to import up to 200 megawatts of electricity from Laos through Thailand and Malaysia.
He said regional connectivity should complement, rather than replace, domestic power generation, enabling Asean countries to expand energy supply collectively while attracting investment and creating jobs.
“I would think that, given time, we will be able to overcome it, and we can see the realisation of the APG,” he added.
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