ASEAN power grid shifts towards implementation

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The ASEAN Power Grid (APG) has moved from the planning stage towards implementation, with stronger political alignment and coherent policies needed to unlock private investment in the region’s cross-border energy infrastructure.

ASEAN Centre for Energy’s (ACE) Executive Director, Datuk Abdul Razib Dawood, said the region now had fresh momentum to turn the long-standing vision of an interconnected power grid into reality.

“We have shifted from planning to implementation on how to do it,” he said during the high-level dialogue session titled ‘Envisioning Sustainable Energy Beyond Borders’, held in conjunction with the 7th International Sustainable Energy Summit 2026 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre today.

Abdul Razib said ASEAN had identified 18 priority interconnection projects under the ASEAN Interconnection Master Plan Studies (AIMS), with further studies being planned to identify additional projects.

He said the region’s interconnected grid would involve links between Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and the peninsula, Singapore and Batam, as well as connections across the Greater Mekong region.

“What we are pushing today is more multilateral,” he said, adding that ASEAN is working towards developing market mechanisms that would eventually allow electricity to be traded across borders beyond conventional long-term power purchase agreements.

Siurce: ASEAN Centre for Energy