Boost for Asean Power Grid as Singapore inks deal on subsea cable

New govt-linked firm signs MOU with TotalEnergies-RGE joint venture

- Chin Hui Shan

The Asean Power Grid, in the works for decades, made further headway with two significant developments announced in Singapore on May 30.

The first is the signing of a deal that would see a new subsea electricity cable being laid between Indonesia and Singapore.

This infrastructure will support Singapore's target of importing from its neighbours up to six gigawatts (GW) of low-carbon electricity by 2035, about one-third of the country's energy demand then.

The second is news that the Singapore Government has appointed the Singapore Energy Interconnections (SGEI), a newly incorporated government-linked company, to specialise in developing cross-border power infrastructure.

Such infrastructure is key to enabling countries in the region to trade renewable-generated electricity with one another.

Both announcements were made on May 30 at an event held in conjunction with the state visit by France President Emmanuel Macron to Singapore.

The deal to develop the new Singapore-Indonesia interconnector for electricity imports was signed between SGEI and Singa Renewables, a joint venture between French energy giant TotalEnergies and multinational conglomerate Royal Golden Eagle (RGE), which has businesses in sectors such as energy and palm oil.

The signing of the memorandum of understanding was witnessed by Dr Tan See Leng, Singapore's Minister-in-charge of Energy, and Science and Technology, and France's Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty Eric Lombard.

The main focus of the MOU is for both companies to explore the planning, development, financing, construction, operation and maintenance of a subsea interconnector and associated assets for low-carbon electricity imports from Indonesia into Singapore, the companies said in a statement.