Multilateral Electricity Trade in Southeast Asia

This seminar presents the policy debates surrounding the development of multilateral electricity trade in Southeast Asia from the perspective of ASEAN policymakers, power sector stakeholders, and international consultants. It aims to explore the applicability of international experiences on this particular bloc of countries without fully built-out infrastructure and at varying stages of market liberalisation.

Four countries in Southeast Asia are currently piloting the first multilateral electricity trade initiative in the region. The Laos-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project (LTMS-PIP) has commenced phase one, with Malaysia recently signing an agreement to purchase electricity from Laos through existing transmission networks in Thailand. Singapore is expected to join at a later date.

The LMTS PIP is being put to trial in the context of a broader power integration initiative involving all ten-member countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): the ASEAN Power Grid.^[i] If successfully operationalised, the LTMS PIP would demonstrate the feasibility of trading and governing electricity trade across liberalised and regulated markets, and potentially encourage other countries in Southeast Asia to link up in the APG.

Presenter: Shelly Hsieh, Policy Leaders Fellow, School of Transnational Governance

The Seminar is organised by the Research Team of the Florence School of Regulation – Energy and open to all EUI members.

[i] The ten ASEAN member states are: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.