Singapore has begun importing renewable energy from Laos via Thailand and Malaysia – a move that marks the first multilateral cross-border electricity trade involving four Asean countries and the first renewable energy import into Singapore. Up to 100 megawatts (MW) of hydropower from Laos will be brought into Singapore using existing interconnectors under the Lao PDR-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project – an intergovernmental project set up in 2014 to study the feasibility of cross-border power trade. The 100MW account for about 1.5 per cent of Singapore’s peak electricity demand in 2020 and could power around 144,000 four-room Housing Board flats for a year. The cross-border electricity flow follows an agreement inked in September last year between Keppel Electric – a wholly owned subsidiary of Keppel Infrastructure Holdings – and Electricite du Laos – the state-owned power supplier of Laos – to import renewable energy into Singapore.
At present, more than 95 per cent of Singapore’s electricity is generated by burning natural gas, a fossil fuel. Burning fossil fuels produces planet-warming carbon dioxide, which contributes to climate change. The power sector is responsible for about 40 per cent of Singapore’s total emissions; however, a recent report commissioned by EMA found it would be feasible for the sector to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. But land constraints in Singapore hinder the construction of large solar farms, and the country also cannot access alternative forms of renewable energy, such as wind energy or hydropower. Still, Singapore’s power sector can reach its net-zero target by 2050 by importing – among other things – clean energy generated elsewhere, the report by the Energy 2050 Committee has found.