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Asean Power Grid: Can South-east Asia finally plug into a shared power future?

Cross-border clean energy projects are gaining momentum, with 2025 shaping up as a breakthrough year – if politics and money align

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Sharanya Pillai

Sharanya Pillai

Published Fri, Aug 29, 2025 · 02:00 PM
    • A growing number of private sector players are jumping into projects related to the Asean Power Grid – the bloc's effort to link up its 10 members' power systems by 2045.
    • A growing number of private sector players are jumping into projects related to the Asean Power Grid – the bloc's effort to link up its 10 members' power systems by 2045. ILLUSTRATION: MARIO MONREAL, ADOBE STOCK

    [SINGAPORE] In 2011, Frank Phuan co-founded Sunseap Leasing, one of Singapore’s earliest solar energy providers. More than a decade on, he is chasing a bigger ambition: lighting up Singapore with Indonesian sunshine.

    Phuan’s new company, Equator Renewables Asia, is set to import 400 megawatts (MW) of solar energy from the Riau Islands into Singapore, via a subsea cable.

    His team has been working on the Indonesian project for about three years, but 2025 is “the year that we do see a lot of breakthroughs”, Phuan tells The Business Times.

    Renewable energyAseanAsean financeESGBrunch

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