<article><p class="lead">Singaporean energy firm Keppel Energy has received the first ever conditional approval awarded by the country's Energy Market Authority (EMA) for 1GW of planned electricity imports from Cambodia, the EMA announced on 16 March.</p><p>Keppel Energy, a subsidiary of Keppel infrastructure, has proposed that the imported electricity will harness solar, hydro and potentially wind power in Cambodia, supported by battery energy storage systems (ESS) or pumped storage hydropower, before being transmitted through new sub-sea cables that span more than 1,000km. The electricity imports are expected to start after 2030, subject to the related regulatory approvals, but the conditional approval will facilitate Keppel's acquisition of the necessary regulatory approvals and licences.</p><p>Keppel Energy on 15 March signed a long-term power purchase and export agreement for utility-scale low-carbon electricity from Royal Group Power (RGP), a subsidiary of Cambodian conglomerate Royal Group. The agreement is Singapore's largest cross-border electricity contract, which will be longer than the 1.4GW <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2377082">Viking interconnector</a> between the UK and Denmark that is currently the longest sub-sea cable being built and expected to be completed by the end of 2023.</p><p>Keppel Energy and the Royal Group will work together to achieve their respective countries' decarbonisation goals "by not only fuelling economic growth but also by moving away from carbon-dependent electricity", said the chairman of RGP Neak Okhna Kith Meng.</p><p>"The conditional approval for electricity imports from Cambodia is an important step towards achieving Singapore's goal of importing up to 4GW of low-carbon electricity by 2035. Singapore is committed to decarbonising our power sector and electricity imports of low-carbon electricity from renewable energy sources will help us achieve our net zero target by 2050," said EMA chief executive Ngiam Shih Chun.</p><p>Keppel Energy will also explore hybridising the generation of low-carbon electricity with other renewable energy resources in Laos, as it leverages on its experience for being involved in the Laos-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project in 2022, the first multilateral cross-border electricity trade that involved the four southeast Asian countries. </p><p>Keppel Offshore and Marine, which went through a merger with Singaporean engineering group Sembcorp Marine, will pilot <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2153840">Singapore's first floating ESS</a>, expected to be completed in 2023, that will have "multiple applications such as supporting areas with intermittent power supply and rapid deployment to provide emergency power". </p><p>Singapore energy firm Sembcorp Industries has also commissioned a <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2403817">285MWh ESS on Jurong Island</a>, which it described as southeast Asia's largest ESS.</p><p>The ESS can help offset the intermittency of sources like wind and solar by storing electricity for use during times of day when they may not be much sunlight or wind available.</p><p class="bylines">By Joseph Ho</p></article>
