Singapore grants conditional approval for 1GW low-carbon power import from Malaysia

Singapore has granted conditional approval to import 1 GW of low-carbon electricity from the Malaysian state of Sarawak, marking a new phase in the energy partnership between the two countries.

Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA) has said that the conditional approval was issued to Sembcorp Utilities and its consortium partner, Sarawak Energy.

This is the first large-scale low-carbon electricity project from Malaysia to receive such approval from Singapore. The city-state is currently importing 50 MW (0.05 GW) of renewable energy from Malaysia under a pilot program launched in December 2024.

EMA said it had preliminarily assessed the consortium’s proposal to be technically and commercially viable for supplying electricity generated from hydropower in Sarawak to Singapore.

To move forward, the consortium must obtain all necessary approvals from relevant regulatory authorities, including those of the countries through which the transmission cable will pass.

The conditional approval provides the consortium with regulatory support from EMA to continue developing the project, with an expected commercial operation date around 2035, the authority noted.

Importing low-carbon electricity is a key part of Singapore’s strategy to achieve carbon neutrality in the power sector, which currently accounts for about 40% of the country’s carbon emissions, according to EMA.

To date, the authority has granted conditional approval to 10 other projects to import low-carbon electricity from Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Six of these projects have made significant progress and have been granted conditional approval.