APIRA Could Spark ASEAN’s Energy Future, but Hurdles Remain

The delegate of Indonesia proposing APIRA to ASEAN member states. 

• APIRA shows promising potential, but its effectiveness could be hindered by structural inefficiencies. The Middle East’s GCCIA provides a example for ASEAN’s power grid to model itself after. 

The ASEAN Power Grid (APG) is a plan raised under the ASEAN Vision 2020, projected to amplify electricity trade and enhance energy accessibility within the region, bringing numerous benefits. The main goal of the APG is to meet the growing electricity demand within ASEAN due to the rapid development and growing population resulting in an increased need for energy.

Though numerous projects under the APG are underway, the cross-border grid linkage is struggling to fully launch, possibly owing to the numerous pitfalls of the initiative. 

"The next challenges will be adding a submersible line from Singapore to Sumatra, Kalimantan, Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak, and Brunei to the Philippines.”—Nuki Agya Utama, ASEAN Centre for Energy Executive Director 

Along with the high costs of capital for renewable energy projects in the region, the financial burden the APG presents are detrimental. 

Another solution proposed by the delegate of Indonesia is APIRA, which aims to be an independent regulatory body to integrate and streamline ASEAN's energy infrastructure. Having incorporated proposals from other delegates, APIRA will serve as a “big umbrella” initiative for regional energy cooperation. 

APIRA promises to standardise technical regulations, grid safety protocols, power dispatch systems, and renewable energy certification across ASEAN through its 2 key components: its ASFEI arm, and its A&A subset. 

The ASFEI arm, short for ASEAN Sovereign Fund for Energy Investment, will act as a sovereign, autonomous council which bypasses bottleneck bureaucracies and investment misalignments between ASEAN pertaining to the APG. ASEAN countries will then be mandated to channel fiscal funds into ASFEI equitably to invest in and construct the energy connectivity grid. 

APIRA’s other A&A subset, standing for advisory and arbitrage, allows observer states such as Russia to offer their services as advisors, economists, and builders for ASEAN states who intend to pivot into fossil production, allowing such states to receive the advice and skills necessary. 

Despite the benefits APIRA could bring to ASEAN, the plan does not fully address key problems regarding the APG. 

Perhaps most importantly, APIRA lacks enforcement power and protectionist policies. As an advisory and regulatory body, APIRA lacks enforceable regulatory power to hold countries accountable if they do not comply with the proposal’s agreements. This could result in countries prioritising their domestic energy market and imposing tariffs or trade restrictions instead, weakening ASEAN states’ commitment to APIRA. 

APIRA also does not address the conflicts regarding hydroelectric dams in the Mekong river. The unilateral development of hydropower dams, particularly by countries upstream, has caused political and environmental conflicts. Since APIRA’s scope does not encompass this, it results in a lack of binding accountability for cross-border river impacts. 

Moreover, APIRA fails to resolve issues of mineral supply, processing, and mining governance. As APIRA’s scope focuses on the electrical power grid, its funds, regulations, and advisory promises do not extend to the mineral supply chain. This neglects pertinent issues such as the lack of illegal or unsustainable mining practices, and does not provide solutions to the environmental issues of mining. 

It is thus evident that while APIRA can make significant improvements to the ASEAN power grid, it still has space to improve. Given that the APG is still an evolving initiative, it would be beneficial for them to learn from and take after more developed and established electrical initiatives, such as the GCCIA. 

Established in 2001, the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority, GCCIA, has united the power grids of Gulf countries into a single, cross-border, interconnected grid. It aims to create “a safety net that protects against blackouts, ensures reliable energy supply, and makes power more affordable and sustainable”.

The GCCIA has been gradually expanding its reach and importance, proving itself to present significant opportunities towards enhancing energy security and balancing electrical supply and demand in the region. In 2024, Iraq was added into the GCCIA, while Iraq’s energy ties with Iran present the larger possibility of a Gulf-wide power grid including all eight Gulf states.  

As a mature grid with a mission to ensure power security and bring economic benefits, the GCCIA’s power lines have a predominant primary transmission voltage of 400kV, allowing for long-distance and high-capacity power transmission. As a result, the GCCIA has had a consistently impressive track record of preventing power outages in GCC countries at 100% up till the end of 2023. 

As compared to the ASEAN power grid, the GCCIA has proven to be a more mature and efficient power grid. Since the APG is still in various stages of development, it comprises a range of voltage levels between 132kV and 500kV in different countries, where unstable power frequencies cause equipment to trip, leading to system outages. 

Thus, the ASEAN power grid has proven itself to still be fragmented and a work in progress that can work on areas such as reliability, stability, and standardisation. The GCCIA, a comparatively more developed and integrated power grid, offers valuable learning opportunities for the APG to model itself after. 

Bibliography 

ASEAN Centre for Energy. “ASEAN Power Grid - ASEAN Centre for Energy,” November 13, 2023. https://aseanenergy.org/apaec/asean-power-grid/. 

ASEAN Centre for Energy. “ASEAN Power Grid - ASEAN Centre for Energy,” November 13, 2023. https://aseanenergy.org/apaec/asean-power-grid/. 

ASEAN Centre for Energy. “How Should ASEAN Member States (AMS) Address Electricity Grid Stability with Increasing Renewable Energy Penetration? - ASEAN Centre for Energy,” January 17, 2025. 

https://aseanenergy.org/post/how-should-asean-member-states-ams-address-electricity -grid-stability-with-increasing-renewable-energy-penetration/. 

“ASEAN Power Grid Enhancing Electricity Interconnectedness,” n.d. 

https://asean.org/wp-content/uploads/images/2015/October/outreach-document/Edited %20APG-3.pdf. 

Begum, Shabana. “Governments, Insurers and Innovative Finance Needed to Reduce Risks of Asean Power Grid.” The Straits Times, May 8, 2025. 

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/governments-insurers-and-innov ative-finance-needed-to-reduce-risks-of-asean-power-grid. 

Gccia.com.sa. “GCC Interconnection Authority,” 2024. https://gccia.com.sa. 

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Written by: Kyra Soh, Rebecca Wong Ixin, Cha Yu Han