SP Group partners France's EDF to facilitate import of green energy from Indonesia

NATIONAL grid operator SP Group on Monday (Oct 11) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with French energy company EDF Group to jointly develop a subsea transmission cable, as part of the latter's plans to import renewable energy from Indonesia to Singapore.

In a press release issued on Tuesday (Oct 12), SP said the cable infrastructure will aim to facilitate these plans starting from a proposed 1,000 MWp solar photovoltaic plant to be developed by a consortium of partners led by EDF's subsidiary, EDF Renewables.

SP envisions the subsea transmission cable to be a key enabler for regional power system integration, by ensuring scalable grid connection capacity from Indonesia upon its completion.

Its group chief executive Stanley Huang said the subsea transmission cable will also enable the group to better plan for future network requirements to maintain its reliability standard, aside from serving as an important part of the region's grid interconnection.

Under the terms of the MOU, SP and EDF will conduct commercial, regulatory and technical feasibility studies for the subsea cable. Both will also explore opportunities to widen the interconnection to other neighbouring clean energy generation sources in Indonesia, with the aim of improving economies of scale.

"We look forward to working closely with EDF on the feasibility studies," said Huang.

The latest partnership comes as Singapore looks to diversify its energy supply and cut emissions.

On Sept 29, Singapore's energy solutions provider Tuas Power signed a MOU with Indonesia Power and EDF Renewables to develop a framework for the import of electricity from Indonesia into Singapore - which also includes the proposed solar photovoltaic plant.

Indonesia Power is the power generation subsidiary of PLN (Persero), which operates power plants in Indonesia.

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