Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke at the 42nd ASEAN Summit in Indonesia on 10 May, urging the bloc’s members to keep working toward establishing a joint power grid following the success of the Laos-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore power integration project (LTMS-PIP).
The LTMS-PIP was created to import 100 megawatts (MW) of renewable hydropower from Laos to Singapore via Thailand and Malaysia using existing interconnections.
Following the success of this project, Singapore’s PM said that “multilateral power trading in the region is feasible,” and that a regional power grid will strengthen energy security and resilience in member states.
Dr. Daovong Phonekeo, Minister of Energy and Mines in Laos said in 2022, “Laos aims to be a major supporter of renewable energy in the region. Laos has exported over 6,000MW of cross-border electricity to its neighboring countries including Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. The country has more than 8,000MW of installed hydropower capacity, which is set to grow in the near future,” according to the Energy Market Authority.
The joint power grid project is designed to complement the ASEAN Economic Community, in which it envisions ASEAN as a single market and product base, a highly competitive region, with equitable economic development, and fully integrated into the global economy. Along with the ASEAN Power Grid, which is an initiative to construct a regional power interconnection to connect the region, on cross-border bilateral terms.
Singapore started importing renewable energy from Laos on 23 June 2022. More than 170,000-megawatt hours of electricity has been imported to Singapore from Laos from June to October last year, and the flow of electricity was “stable,” said Minister of Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong in a written parliamentary reply to CNA.
