Plans to strengthen cross-border energy infrastructure in ASEAN seen in this year's AMEM conference.

The delegate of Japan speaking about solutions to ensure transparency of wheeling charges during the AMEM conference. Photo: Keslyn Tan

Faith So, Keslyn Tan, Hailey Jim En

UPDATED JUN 16, 2025, 13:33 PM

SINGAPORE — The question of strengthening cross-border energy infrastructure has yet again surfaced during this year’s ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM) conference. The Asean Power Grid (APG) is an initiative to entrust a regional power interconnection to connect the region in order to reach the goal of a total integrated South East Asia power grid system. Wheeling Charges is another initiative by ASEAN, where fees are paid for transmitting electricity from one national grid to another, which develops a fair and transparent formula which is acceptable to all stakeholders and essential for cross-border electricity trade.

During the conference, the delegate of Japan has identified some of the issues faced about the question, mainly focusing on the issues regarding the cross-boarder infrastructure.

The first issue brought up was the fact that there are “no common rules”, with the delegate of Japan stating that “countries often act unilaterally – especially on electricity trade and dam development.” The lack of standardised regulations would frequently inconsistent pricing of electricity, which may lead to the mistrust among member states countries.

The second issue brought up by the delegate of Japan is that there are “no resolution mechanismsfor conflicts.” Stating that the lack of a neutral system may lead to the slow resolvement of conflicts. Furthermore the lack of such mechanisms pushes away investors thus affectingdeveloping countries in ASEAN.

The cross-boarder energy infrastructure brings about certain issues for ASEAN, such as regulatory constraints like the national regulations on cross-border licensing and network access, technical constraints including the synchronisation of electricity grids and physical challenges, especially arising from the region’s geography. Furthermore it acts as a financial hurdle especially for countries that are still developing.

The cross-boarder energy infrastructure also brings about certain issues for Singapore. In a note paper that is passed to the Straits Times, the delegate of Singapore states that “Singapore does share a few problems”. First is the fact that Singapore has land scarcity, which makes it difficult for any infrastructure to be built. Another problem is limited resources, like minerals etc, which would be needed to strengthen the cross-border energy infrastructure.

During the AMEM debate during YMAX 2025, the delegates of Indonesia, Russia and Australia have suggested APIRA, an ASEAN Power Integration and Regulatory Authority framework. APIRA’s purpose is a sovereign and autonomous council which bypasses bottleneck bureaucracies and investment misalignment between ASEAN countries pertaining to the Asean Power Grid. 

Meanwhile, the delegates of Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia have worked together to form the P.A.C.E. framework, which focuses on the planning, automation, cooperation and efficiency of the Asean Power Grid. This framework suggests developing regional predictive modeling tools, deploying automation in substations, establishing a new Asean Power Grid Regulatory Committee and launching regional campaigns to upgrade transmission lines. 

Furthermore, the Republic of India has proposed the Joint Open Standards Hub (JOSH) framework, which is a platform to collect and standardise regional electrical data such as hourly load, transmission capacity and more. Its purpose is to address data fragmentation and to facilitate strategic planning of the Asean power grid connections, as stated in the delegate of India’s working paper. 

The delegate of India has also stated that APIRA and JOSH will eventually integrate their ideas and merge to form a collated framework. This is supported by the delegate of Indonesia, who supports both of the existing frameworks. 

Overall, it is clear that a merger between APIRA and JOSH will be essential in order to properly work out the issue at hand. The final outcome of this discussion will undoubtedly influence how ASEAN member states will live in the near future.