JAKARTA – Regional energy leaders are calling for greater urgency in building interconnected electricity networks across Southeast Asia as surging demand puts growing pressure on power systems.
The push for the ambitious ASEAN Power Grid comes as the Philippines and its regional peers face the twin challenge of meeting rapidly rising electricity needs while staying on course with longer-term energy transition and decarbonization goals.
Warit Rattanachuen, deputy governor of Thailand’s Electricity Generating Authority, said ASEAN members continue to strengthen their domestic power capacity to support cross-border electricity trading.
“They can share the reserve capacity, including renewable energy, if they have their own. There are so many renewable energy resources there that can be shared through the ASEAN Power Grid,” Rattanachuen said yesterday at Enlit Asia 2026 here in Indonesia’s capital.
Regional power demand, he said, continues to grow each year, driven in part by the rapid expansion of data centers, with some facilities now requiring more than one gigawatt of capacity.
The growing adoption of electric vehicles is also driving up electricity demand among ASEAN countries, Rattanachuen said.
“When anything changes too fast, the grid is like the backbone to mitigate that,” he emphasized.
For Ignatius Rendroyako, executive vice president of Indonesian state-owned power utility PT PLN (Persero), the key priority toward 2030 is strengthening regional connectivity.
ASEAN power utilities should commit to building robust interconnection infrastructure linking their respective electricity systems, he said.
“We also have to always (remember) that each of us has to always try to keep, maintain and increase the capability of our system,” Rendroyako said.
First envisioned in 1997, the ASEAN Power Grid seeks to connect the electricity networks of ASEAN member states by 2045.
The World Bank Group estimates that the initiative will require $800 billion (about P50.2 trillion) in generation and transmission investments.
The ASEAN Power Grid has long been an ambitious regional vision, but slow implementation has hindered progress.
Momentum, however, has picked up, especially this year when the Philippines holds the ASEAN chairmanship.
The Philippines, for instance, is accelerating efforts to establish possible power links with Indonesia via Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, Basilan and mainland Mindanao.
In an online media briefing yesterday, Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said the government remains bullish on the ASEAN Power Grid despite the country’s persistent electricity supply constraints.
“It is very much possible. It’s just down the line,” Garin said, noting that the initiative will just take time as many issues still need to be addressed, including technical, legal and financial concerns.