Written reply to PQs on Monitoring of clean electricity imports from Indonesia and safeguards against price renegotiations and policy changes

Questions

Ms He Ting Ru: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry (a) what is the projected cost differential between importing clean electricity from Indonesia as compared to alternative sources; (b) how many of the seven conditionally approved Indonesian import projects have achieved financial close; and (c) what safeguards are in place to prevent the renegotiation of agreed pricing terms after infrastructure investments are made.

Ms He Ting Ru: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry (a) whether there are contingency plans for any reduction in Indonesia’s planned clean electricity exports below the 3.4 GW committed for 2030; (b) what amount of Singapore’s 2035 low-carbon electricity import target of 6 GW is currently backed by binding government-to-government agreements; and (c) what mechanisms exist in the current conditional import licences to protect Singapore’s interests in situations where source countries modify their export policies.

Written Answer by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong

1. The Energy Market Authority has issued Conditional Approvals to seven importers to import 3.4 gigawatts (GW) of low-carbon electricity from Indonesia. Of these, five importers have been awarded Conditional Licenses as their projects have made more progress. We will continue to work closely with the Indonesian government to support the progress of these projects. This includes aligning approval processes within both governments before projects progress to the next stage of development.

2. The importers aim to achieve financial close from 2025. If successful, they plan to begin commercial operations from 2028. The importers are currently negotiating Power Purchase Agreements with large scale electricity consumers. It is in the interest of both importers and consumers to come to mutually acceptable commercial terms, especially on the pricing and length of the contracts, so that the consumers can secure access to low-carbon electricity to meet their decarbonisation needs and importers can improve the viability of their projects.

3. Aside from the projects in Indonesia, we are also working with project developers to import low-carbon electricity from other countries in the region. This will give us a diverse portfolio of projects that can help us collectively meet our imports target of six GW by 2035, and potentially import more electricity beyond 2035.

4. We will ensure our energy security as we embark on the energy transition. Natural gas will continue to underpin our energy portfolio for the foreseeable future, even as we scale up electricity imports, maximise domestic solar deployment, and potentially introduce new low-carbon energy sources such as hydrogen in the future. We will also have sufficient local backup generation capacity to meet our needs if there are disruptions to the electricity imports.