Expanding Power Trade in ASEAN

The ASEAN Power Grid (APG) is central to Southeast Asia's ambition to enhance energy security, affordability and sustainability through regional electricity connectivity. As the region’s electricity demand continues to grow alongside substantial renewable energy resource potential, interconnected power systems can enable resource sharing across wider areas and enhance system reliability.

Recent developments, including the Enhanced APG Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and the expansion of multilateral trading initiatives, have strengthened momentum to advance the APG from vision to implementation. Scaling power trade in the region to achieve the full APG vision requires enabling conditions to be strengthened across governance, regulatory, technical, and finance and commercial dimensions. 

This report introduces an ASEAN Power Grid Implementation Framework to assess enabling conditions for and barriers to cross-border power trade, and to guide targeted policy and co-ordination efforts. The framework examines two layers: domestic enablers and cross-border co-operation arrangements. These layers are assessed across four dimensions: governance, regulatory, technical, and finance and commercial. The framework is applied to six ASEAN countries and two interconnection corridors to identify implementation gaps, highlight good practices, and support targeted policy and co-ordination efforts.

Drawing on stakeholder consultations, survey inputs, research and international experience, the report examines how co-operation arrangements can evolve alongside the expansion of regional power trade. It identifies practical pathways to strengthen implementation readiness, support project development and investment, and advance cross-border power trade. By providing a structured approach to assessing implementation challenges and opportunities, the framework aims to support policy makers, regulators, utilities and regional institutions in accelerating progress towards the APG vision.