Towards a unified Southeast Asian grid in the next decade
“Regional integration can help balance the energy trilemma” said Matthew Wittenstein, Electricity Sector Analyst, International Energy Agency (IEA), during a roundtable hosted by IEA at the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) on “Power Sector Integration in Southeast Asia”...
By Daryl Chan
“Regional integration can help balance the energy trilemma” said Matthew Wittenstein, Electricity Sector Analyst, International Energy Agency (IEA), during a roundtable hosted by IEA at the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) on “Power Sector Integration in Southeast Asia”.
With electricity demand in Southeast Asia projected to triple by 2040, ASEAN need to find innovative solutions to fuel their economies. Through regional collaboration and interconnection, panellists agreed that ASEAN can meet their power sector needs in a more affordable, secure and sustainable manner. “An interconnected grid enables better leveraging of regional resources to meet domestic demand growths” Wittenstein said.
In particular, an interconnected power system can enhance the development and integration of variable renewable power generation sources, enabling the decarbonisation of ASEAN economies. For example, countries could potentially draw cheaper and cleaner hydropower from Laos and Myanmar through collaborative projects. Dr Phyllis Yoshida, a Fellow for Energy & Technology from the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, added that interconnectivity could potentially improve the overall resiliency of ASEAN through the provision of mutual grid support.
However, panellists agreed that progress on developing a unified power grid in Southeast Asia has been somewhat limited.
Beni Suryadi, Senior Research Analyst from the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE), said that many issues still needed to be addressed.These ranged from geophysical constraints to differences in regulatory and market structures to geopolitics.
Nonetheless, countries are already working together to address these issues, with panellists expressing hope of a unified grid in Southeast Asia within the next decade.
Effective regulations and equitable cost sharing mechanism are key as these provided the long-term certainty required by investors for grid interconnection projects, said Wittenstein. Additionally, regulators will also need to learn to take on responsibilities at both the national and regional levels to harmonise regulations and reliability standards among different power grids.