Governments, insurers and innovative finance needed to reduce risks of Asean power grid

SINGAPORE – An Asean-wide electricity grid could result in cheaper, cleaner electricity for people across the region. But poor grid connectivity between countries and the lack of long-term demand for green electricity are among factors that could hinder investments in this area.

South-east Asia faces a significant green investment gap of more than US$210 billion (S$272 billion) a year, amid the higher perceived risk in making green investments, said the Energy Market Authority’s (EMA) assistant chief executive Low Xin Wei on May 8.

This higher perceived risk leads to a higher cost of capital for renewable energy projects in the region. Every 2 per cent increase in the cost of capital can raise the cost of producing electricity from solar and wind plants – across their lifetime – by more than 20 per cent, Mr Low said at the Climate Group Asia Action Summit.

This is a key financing challenge that the region has to overcome before low-carbon electricity can be traded to help renewables-disadvantaged countries like Singapore reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Achieving the vision of trading renewables across Asean would first require efforts by governments and insurers, as well as innovative financing methods, to reduce the risks so that investors are more willing to take the plunge, said Mr Low, who oversees EMA’s markets and systems division.

Today, natural gas – a fossil fuel – accounts for around 95 per cent of Singapore’s electricity generation. To

meet the country’s 2030 climate targets

– which include the reduction of emissions to around 60 million tonnes – clean energy imports have been identified as an effective lever, alongside carbon capture and energy efficiency in industries. This is according to a climate report that the Republic submitted to the UN in November 2024. 

This is why the Singapore Government has been actively championing the creation of an Asean grid for years, and recently

entered into agreements with Cambodia,

Vietnam and Indonesia to import 5.6 gigawatts of clean electricity from sources including solar, hydropower and wind.

Electricity imports are expected to make up around a third of the country’s energy needs by 2035. To lay the groundwork for the regional grid, Singapore is importing 200MW of electricity via the Laos-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore power integration project.

Since October 2024, 100MW comes from hydropower in Laos, and the remaining 100MW has been topped up by Malaysia, which supplies from a mix of energy sources, including coal and natural gas.

One way to close the investment gap for the regional power grid is through innovative financing methods like blended finance, said Mr Low. This refers to starting with public and philanthropic funding to make it easier for risk-averse private funding to come on board.

Mr Low highlighted the Singapore-based Bayfront Infrastructure Management platform as a promising model. This platform pools together loans from completed infrastructure projects and turns them into tradeable investment products.

This thus helps to recycle capital back to renewable project developers and allow investors to spread out their investments, he added.

The insurance industry would also hold the key to de-risking projects for the Asean grid, said Mr Low at the summit, which was held at Mandarin Oriental Singapore.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has anchored a number of international insurance brokers, such as Marsh and Willis Towers Watson, to help people in the green finance scene navigate risks in energy transition investments and in the carbon markets.

Pointing to support from the Government, Mr Low highlighted the $10 billion Future Energy Fund, which was created to support projects that may involve nascent technologies or require high upfront capital spending, as well as exposure to significant commercial and geopolitical risks.

Such projects include subsea cables to trade low-carbon electricity and hydrogen terminals and pipelines, if Singapore decides to adopt and scale up the use of clean hydrogen fuel in the future.

It was announced at the Ecosperity sustainability conference on May 7 that Singapore will, in the coming months, be ready to deploy part of the US$500 million it has set aside as initial funding for green projects in the region. This initial injection of funds serves to increase funding from other sources.

“That said, de-risking can only take us so far,” said Mr Low, adding that companies and organisations must step up by committing to long-term contracts to buy imported green electricity.

“These (contracts) provide revenue certainty and enable developers to secure financing at lower cost. Without them, many bankable projects will remain stuck at the starting line,” he added.

But Mr Low acknowledged that corporates are also restricted because major international standards do not recognise certificates from cross-border electricity trade outside of the European Union and North America. Companies need these certificates to be recognised so that they can disclose their carbon emissions and meet their sustainability goals over time.

“(This means) energy that comes from an Indonesian island may be green, but it may not be considered green as far as accounting goes, and that’s where the challenge arises. This is a key barrier preventing corporates from signing (purchase) agreements with electricity importers,” said Mr Low.