Speech by 2M Tan See Leng at the Asia Clean Energy Summit (ACES) 2024

Excellencies and Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Mr Gan Kim Yong spoke yesterday at the Singapore Energy Lecture, about how Singapore is actively studying and developing every possible decarbonisation pathway.

2. Let me elaborate on our efforts for two of our key decarbonisation pathways.

First, importing low carbon electricity from the region.

Second, developing cross-border carbon capture and storage solutions with our neighbours.

3. Almost 30 years ago, ASEAN Member States committed to developing an ASEAN Power Grid.

The vision then was to strengthen resilience, energy security and sustainability for mutual benefit.

With climate change, it is more important than ever to realise the vision for an ASEAN Power Grid.

4. Integration allows us to maximise the region’s diverse renewable energy potential, by matching renewable energy rich areas to areas with demand.

By doing so, we reduce our dependence on fossil fuels; increase resilience against fluctuations in global energy markets; and make progress towards our decarbonisation targets.

5. For source countries, cross-border electricity projects will also attract high-quality investments, spur the development of grids and new sectors in the economy, and create new jobs.

Reuters reports that the projects to export electricity from Indonesia to Singapore are estimated to incur capital investments of around US$20 billion.

They will also underpin the setting up of new factories for the manufacturing of solar panels and battery energy storage systems.

6. Similar to electricity trade, cross-border carbon capture and storage, or CCS, is another area of partnership that can benefit all involved.

We are optimistic about the potential of CCS.

This is because several of our neighbours in the region are blessed with hundreds of gigatons of geological storage potential.

7. Exporting countries benefit from cross-border CCS projects because it helps to decarbonise otherwise hard-to-abate industries.

Storage countries benefit from foreign direct investments, job creation and utilisation of geological resources.

For example, the UK estimates that their two CCS projects will create around 4,000 new jobs and attract US$10 billion of private investments.

Domestic CCS projects will also benefit from the economies of scale by sharing the development costs of storage infrastructure with cross-border projects.

8. Our neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia have ambitions to be regional CCS hubs.

Singapore is happy to work with them to support their ambitions.

In February this year, Singapore and Indonesia signed a Letter of Intent on cross-border CCS.

Since then, a bilateral interagency working group has been formed to discuss policy and technical matters relating to CCS.

9. In a nutshell, greater integration, be it via cross-border electricity trading or CCS, catalyses investment and new project development for decarbonisation.

10. How much progress can we make in the coming years on ASEAN’s energy transition?

Well, that depends on how much we advance regional integration and strengthen international collaboration.

We can, and must, do more.

Let me share what Singapore is doing and what we will work with our partners on.

Pursuing every decarbonisation pathway

11. Singapore takes our climate change commitments seriously.

A key plank of our decarbonisation plans is to import low-carbon electricity from the region.

12. In 2021, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) launched a Request for Proposal to invite proposals from interested parties.

We are prepared to do more to attain our net zero targets, given growing electricity demand.

13. This is why I announced an increase in our imports ambition from 4GW to around 6GW by 2035 earlier in September.

This will meet about one-third of our energy needs by 2035.

14. We have awarded Conditional Approvals to nine projects to date, to import up to 5.6GW of low-carbon electricity from Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

15. Of these nine projects, five from Indonesia have received Conditional Licenses from EMA.

These are projects which have reached an advanced developmental stage, and are on track to be implemented first if they can meet all the required conditions.

16. And we are not stopping there.

We will continue to grant Conditional Approvals to projects which we assess to be credible, including those which will materialise over a longer time frame beyond 2035.

17. On this note, I am happy to announce that EMA will grant a Conditional Approval to Sun Cable to import 1.75 GW of low-carbon electricity from Australia’s Northern Territory to Singapore.

18. The Conditional Approval recognises that Sun Cable’s project can be technically and commercially viable based on the information submitted thus far.

It facilitates Sun Cable's continued development of their project.

To progress the project, Sun Cable will need to further validate its technical and commercial plans, and secure all requisite approvals from relevant jurisdictions, including countries that the cables will pass through.

19. This is an ambitious project, considering the scale and the distance between Australia and Singapore.

Time will be needed to develop it, and we expect it to come online only after 2035.

But when completed, the project will be a meaningful complement to the ASEAN Power Grid, and serve as an additional source of electricity for Singapore.

20. Ladies and Gentlemen, cross-border electricity trading can happen in ASEAN, so long as we have the collective will to make the ASEAN Power Grid a reality.

We already have a pathfinder project in place.

The Laos-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project, or the LTMS-PIP, was launched in 2022 to trade up to 100MW of electricity in the first instance.

21. Last month, we expanded the capacity for Phase 2 of the project to 200MW.

This was made possible by the introduction of multidirectional power trade whereby both Malaysia and Laos can provide supply to the project.

22. We would like to further increase cross-border electricity trade with Malaysia, and we are working closely with our Malaysian counterparts to advance these discussions.

Singapore cannot do this alone

23. It is a tautology that Singapore cannot work on the ASEAN Power Grid alone.

We will need the strong participation of our neighbours on this journey.

The Southeast Asia region is not short of renewable energy.

There are credible proposals to trade electricity and develop new renewable generation capacity that can benefit all countries.

What we lack is the regional architecture to bring all these elements together.

24. For the next phase of the ASEAN Power Grid, we must move beyond planning to execution.

Specifically, ASEAN must focus on the development of subsea cables. After all, there is no transition without transmission.

25. At the ASEAN Energy Ministers meeting last month, the Ministers tasked our Senior Officials and the ASEAN Centre for Energy to work on two key priorities.

First, to develop a concrete framework and Terms of Reference for laying subsea cables.

Second, to realise the ASEAN Power Grid by 2045.

This was captured in our Joint Ministerial Statement, which reflects our shared commitment to this issue.

26. This outcome builds on the work that Singapore has embarked on with other ASEAN Member States.

Since the start of the year, we have established Working Groups with Cambodia and Laos, as well as with Vietnam and the US, to discuss the development of subsea power cables and infrastructure.

The working groups will contribute their recommendations to the ASEAN process.

27. Given that interconnectors are critical for this next phase of our electricity imports journey, Singapore will tap on SP PowerInterconnect (“SPPI”), a subsidiary of our national grid operator SP Group, as a technical and development partner to collaborate with importers in implementing the interconnector projects.

28. Beyond ASEAN, we are also strengthening partnerships with international stakeholders to spur progress in regional integration.

They can provide technical advice and unlock new financing pathways, both of which are critical for decarbonisation.

There will be plenty of opportunities to participate in ASEAN’s energy transition and we welcome all stakeholders to join us in supporting the region’s decarbonisation.

Let me share a few of our key initiatives.

29. First, we have officially launched the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s Regional Cooperation Centre, the IEA’s first office outside of its headquarters in Paris.

The Centre’s presence in Singapore underscores our shared commitment to contribute to the region.

We hope that the centre will help us accelerate regional decarbonisation and strengthen multilateral power trade.

30. Second, Singapore and the US will commence a “Study on Legal and Financing Frameworks for Regional Energy Connectivity in Southeast Asia”.

This builds on an earlier study which showed how regional energy connectivity in Southeast Asia is technically feasible and yields socio-economic benefits for source countries.

Singapore and the US are forming a working group comprising regional countries and multilateral development institutions to advance the study and our shared objectives.

Companies can support the transition

31. Besides governments and international organisations, companies also have an important role in supporting the energy transition.

They too have sustainability goals and targets, and need to credibly reduce their emissions coming from electricity consumption, otherwise known as Scope 2 emissions.

32. This is where Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) come in.

Simply put, each REC represents proof that 1 Megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity was generated from a renewable energy source.

Companies purchase and then retire RECs to offset their Scope 2 emissions, thereby fulfilling their sustainability commitments.

33. Within Singapore, there are standards that protect the credibility of RECs issued from renewable energy projects, especially in terms of reducing the risk of double-counting.

34. However, there are currently no major international standards that recognise RECs associated with cross-border trading of electricity, outside of single markets like the European Union.

35. We want to give industry players the confidence that these RECs are properly accounted for.

36. We have therefore started working with countries such as Australia to study potential pathways to ensure high-integrity RECs.

We are also working with like-minded partners such as the Asia Clean Energy Coalition (ACEC), Climate Group’s RE100 initiative, SEMI and the I-TRACK Standard Foundation to co-create a new pilot framework to recognise RECs associated with cross-border electricity trade.

This framework will help catalyse demand for cross-border electricity, and facilitate investments that support the long-term viability of electricity trading projects.

We welcome participation from all interested parties in this effort.

37. Even with access to RECs, some companies might need further guidance on the steps needed to reduce their indirect emissions from electricity consumption.

To address this, EMA, the Energy Research Institute @ NTU and EnterpriseSG have partnered together to develop a Playbook for businesses in Singapore that provides practical strategies to manage Scope 2 emissions.

38. We are launching the first two sections of the playbook today, and the full playbook will be launched early next year.

Workforce’s capabilities to seize green growth opportunities

39. Thus far, I have spoken about the roles that governments, regional partners, international organisations, and companies can play in the energy transition.

Let me now elaborate on what we are doing to equip our workforce with the right capabilities for the green transition.

This is especially important to me because I don’t just look after energy issues; I am also the Manpower Minister.

40. Under the Green Skills Committee, EMA has mapped out key job roles for the clean energy workforce.

Arising from this, earlier this month, Sembcorp Solar was appointed by SkillsFuture Singapore as a Queen Bee for the Energy and Power Sector.

Queen Bees are industry leaders who take on a leading role to champion skills development for companies, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), within the industry.

41. Sembcorp Solar will leverage its global learning institute, Sembcorp Academy, to train players within the solar energy ecosystem to uplift their capabilities.

For example, two SMEs have already expressed interest to work with Sembcorp Solar to develop innovative proof-of-concepts projects to improve their capabilities and expand their product offerings.

Thank you, Sembcorp Solar, for taking up the mantle. And I hope that more industry leaders, not just at this summit, continue to act as Queen Bees in the entire eco system to create that platform for many more people to be trained.

42. Industry partners will be partnering EMA to on-board 7 new scholars under the Energy-Industry Scholarship.

The scholarship provides a pipeline of outstanding graduate talent into the energy sector.

The 7 scholars are engineering students from Singapore Polytechnic and Ngee Ann Polytechnic, and upon graduation, will join our sponsoring organisations Keppel Merlimau Cogen, YTL PowerSeraya, SP Group, PacificLight, and SLNG.

43. We will continue to work closely with the industry to upskill our workforce to support the energy transition.

Conclusion

44. Ladies and Gentlemen, at the ASEAN Summit earlier this month, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said, “It is important that ASEAN and ASEAN partners show that there can be a different way.

A way where we work together to benefit from more integration, rather than more isolation, where we can benefit from win-win cooperation and free trade.”

45. Particularly in this era, especially in an increasingly divided and dangerous world, integration is precisely what Singapore is seeking to pursue with our neighbours, our partners and our companies.

We can achieve significantly a lot more together than being apart.

46. As long as we are all willing to take concrete steps towards achieving our shared vision, as long as we are committed in word and in deed to regional integration and international collaboration, I am confident that we can make our collective energy transition a reality.

I wish you a successful Asia Clean Energy Summit ahead.