Electrical Equipment / Components & Telecoms

On June 23, the Singapore Energy Market Authority announced that 100 megawatts of electricity will be imported from Laos from now on, and the imported electricity will be transmitted to Singapore via Thailand and Malaysia, a move that marks the integration of Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. The LTMS-PIP”) project was officially launched, and the long-awaited construction of the ASEAN power grid has taken an important step.

The "LTMS-PIP" project was jointly proposed by Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore in September 2014. It is an important path-finding project for the implementation of the ASEAN power grid construction. Access to safe and sustainable energy supply provides opportunities for the development of low-carbon and renewable energy in the ASEAN region, improves the overall security and stability of ASEAN energy, and promotes the coordinated development of the region's economy.

95% of Singapore's electricity is generated from imported natural gas. More than 70% of Singapore's natural gas imports come from pipelines from Indonesia and Malaysia. In October 2021, an accident at an upstream facility in Indonesia resulted in a reduction in the total amount of gas transported from Indonesia to Singapore, which accounted for 16% to 20% of Singapore's total gas imports. The official transmission of electricity from Laos to Singapore marks a key step for Singapore in importing renewable energy.

For a long time, Singapore has sought to diversify energy varieties and supply through multiple channels, focusing on gradually improving its energy self-sufficiency to cope with the ever-increasing energy gap and rising price pressures. In addition to broadening the channels for importing natural gas, another idea for Singapore is to import electricity directly from abroad. In 2021, the Singapore government announced that it plans to import up to 4,000 megawatts of electricity by 2035 to meet about 30% of the local electricity demand. The sources of electricity imports include Malaysia, Indonesia and Laos.

In August 2021, Singapore’s Tuas Power signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysian solar PV developer NEFIN to import 100 MW of carbon-neutral electricity from Malaysia. In addition, Singapore also plans to cooperate with Australia in the field of energy, and plans to build a solar power plant in Australia to transport solar power back to Singapore through an undersea tunnel through Indonesia.

After the official launch of the "LTMS-PIP" project, according to the agreement reached between the old and the new, the Lao Power Company will supply 100 MW and 30 MW of electricity to Singapore during the rainy and dry seasons from 2022 to 2023. The electricity sold in Laos comes from hydropower, which is a renewable energy source. In recent years, Laos has built and planned a series of hydropower stations in order to meet domestic electricity demand and improve its ability to export electricity, hoping to become the "battery" of ASEAN.

According to the Fifth ASEAN Energy Outlook released in 2017, due to the improvement of economic growth and consumption level, ASEAN's electricity demand is expected to increase by more than 2.5 times by 2040, and ASEAN will face significant pressure on electricity consumption growth in the future. At present, coal is still the main resource used for power generation in ASEAN countries, and the consumption is still increasing, which is the main reason for the increasing carbon emissions in ASEAN. It is predicted that ASEAN's carbon emissions are likely to increase to a high of 3.46 billion tons by 2050.

The ASEAN Grid is an important regional initiative. As early as 1997, ASEAN leaders proposed the ASEAN Power Grid Construction Plan. The purpose is to connect the independent power systems of each country through the transmission grid between adjacent countries to collect electricity, and then complete the cross-border power exchange. It aims to strengthen regional energy security and achieve Environmental protection, green and low-carbon development goals. So far, ASEAN has promoted the ASEAN Power Grid Development Plan as a core project of the ASEAN Economic Community.

The ASEAN power grid construction adopts a gradual development strategy. The first step is to realize bilateral interconnection between member states, and then gradually extend to sub-regional interconnection, construct the northern power grid, the southern power grid and the eastern power grid, and finally establish a fully integrated ASEAN power grid system. . Develop abundant low-carbon energy resources such as hydropower and geothermal, solve problems such as uneven distribution of energy resources and mismatch between power production and consumption areas, strengthen regional power interconnection, coordinate regional energy and power resources, reduce carbon emissions, and strengthen energy Security has become the consensus of ASEAN member states.

The "2016-2025 ASEAN Action Plan for Energy Cooperation (APAEC)" formulated by ASEAN in 2015 made it clear that 16 projects with a total of 45 bilateral power interconnection projects should be promoted at this stage. According to the "Progress and Prospects of the ASEAN Electricity Interconnection Project" released in mid-2019, by 2018, 14 interconnection sub-projects have been put into commercial operation, with a power transmission scale of 5.5 million kilowatts. The official launch of the "LTMS-PIP" project will further accelerate the construction of the ASEAN power grid and the interconnection of renewable energy among member countries.

In order to achieve green development, ASEAN proposes that the proportion of renewable energy should reach 23% of the energy consumed by 2025. According to their actual and natural conditions, each member state actively promotes hydropower, natural gas, solar energy and wind power generation, etc. Some member states are also exploring carbon capture and storage technologies to reduce emissions. The head of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) recently said at the Singapore International Energy Week event that ASEAN hopes to use a quarter of its energy by 2025 from renewable energy, and regional and international cooperation will play an important role.

ASEAN Secretary-General Lim Yuhui said that ASEAN will need at least US$367 billion over the next five years to finance its energy goals, and needs to strengthen supervision, expand funding sources and improve the investment climate to achieve energy transition goals. This also shows that ASEAN has a long way to go to achieve energy transformation and build the ASEAN power grid.