His Excellency Bapak Luhut Panjaitan, Indonesia Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investments,

 

Distinguished guests,

 

1. I congratulate the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment Affairs for once more bringing so many important stakeholders together for this second Indonesia International Sustainability Forum. The Forum reflects Indonesia’s leadership and commitment to catalyse regional cooperation on sustainability and climate change solutions.

 

2. When the first forum was held last year, Singapore and Indonesia signed an MOU to support the development of commercial projects and interconnections for cross-border electricity trading. Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA) also granted Conditional Approvals to five companies for the import of 2GW of low-carbon electricity from Indonesia to Singapore.

 

3. Over the past year, these five companies, namely Pacific Medco Solar Energy, Adaro Solar International, EDP Renewables APAC, Vanda RE and Keppel Energy, continued to make concrete progress towards a final investment decision. The companies conducted marine surveys and feasibility studies to obtain greater certainty about the commercial and technical conditions needed for their projects to succeed.

 

4. This year, EMA will issue Conditional Licences to these companies, which recognise that these projects are in an advanced developmental stage. The Conditional Licenses also signify that these projects have substantially demonstrated their ability to meet the requirements of both Indonesia and Singapore. This is important, because we want cross-border electricity trading to be win-win propositions for all parties.

 

5. Building on the progress of these 5 projects, I am also pleased to announce that EMA will be granting Conditional Approvals to two more projects, from the TotalEnergies-RGE and Shell-Vena Energy consortiums respectively.  When ready, these two projects will export a combined 1.4GW of low-carbon electricity from Indonesia to Singapore.

 

6. This amount of progress within the span of a year would not have been possible without the close partnership with multiple Indonesian stakeholders, including Kemenko Marves, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, TIMNAS, the Ministry of State Owned Enterprises, the Ministry of Investments, and PLN. I thank you for your support and look forward to continuing these  strong working relationships.

 

7. Regional electricity imports are a key part of Singapore’s decarbonisation journey as we progress towards our national climate target to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. As can be seen from today’s announcements, there is strong interest from credible parties to supply low-carbon electricity to Singapore.

 

8. Earlier, Singapore announced that we would work towards 4GW of imports by 2035. Now, we will seek to increase our imports to around 6GW by 2035. And we are prepared to do more, especially if we can work together with our neighbours to develop the ASEAN Power Grid. I will share our plans at the upcoming Singapore International Energy Week.

 

9. As SM Teo shared earlier, cross-border electricity trade will benefit both Singapore and Indonesia. Besides producing electricity for export to Singapore, these projects will facilitate the setting up of plants manufacturing solar PV and battery energy storage systems in Indonesia. The revenue from exporting electricity to Singapore can also be used to catalyse more renewable energy projects to accelerate Indonesia’s decarbonisation journey. These projects reflect a shared commitment by both countries to collectively address climate change and open the door to deeper collaboration.

 

10. I look forward to further milestones in our electricity imports projects. There is still much more work to be done before the first electrons will flow. Let us keep this positive momentum going. 

 

Conclusion

 

11. As the saying goes, if we want to go far, we must go together. There is only so much each country can do by itself to decarbonise. Singapore remains committed to working with Indonesia and other partners to support one another’s journey to net-zero. Let us continue to develop new opportunities for innovation, cooperation and partnership.

 

12. Thank you.