Singapore may start importing 2 GW of renewable energy annually from Indonesia within five years. These imports would account for about 15% of its annual needs, marking the country’s largest-ever cross-border electricity deal.
Combined with a similar deal granting conditional approval to import 1 GW of electricity annually from Cambodia,Singapore is three-quarters of the way toward achieving its import goal of up to 4 GW of electricity a year by 2035.
The Energy Market Authority (EMA) announced on September 8 that it was granting conditional approval to five projects to import a total of 2 GW of low-carbon electricity from Indonesia into the city state.
The five firms managing the projects are Pacific Medco Solar, Adaro Solar International, EDP Renewables Asia-Pacific, Vanda RE and Keppel Energy.
The EMA said that conditional approvals are granted after an initial assessment to determine the technical and commercial viability of the proposed electricity import projects.
These approvals build on several agreements between Indonesia and Singapore in the field of energy cooperation, including one on focused on low-carbon energy and cross-border electricity interconnection.
The latest agreement was signed by Indonesia’s Minister of Energy, Arifin Tasrif, and Singapore’s Second Minister of Trade and Industry, Tan See Leng, on the sidelines of the Indonesia Sustainability Forum in Jakarta on September 8.
Tan said in an event that the agreement provided specificity on areas of cooperation between the two nations and would provide a robust framework to facilitate projects.
Singapore and Indonesia signed related agreements in January 2022 and in March this year.
EMA said that these deals affirm both commitments to facilitating cross-border electricity trading projects and interconnections between each other, as well as investments in the development of renewable energy manufacturing industries.
Such industries include solar PV and battery energy storage systems, with the five agreed upon projects to facilitate the setting up of manufacturing plants in Indonesia.
“These projects aim to progressively install approximately 11 GWp of PV plants and about 21 GWh of BESS, and aim to commence commercial operations from the end of 2027,” said EMA.
The five companies managing the power import projects will conduct marine surveys on the proposed route for subsea power cables, as approved by the Indonesian authorities.
