KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has agreed to provide renewable energy to Singapore.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim highlighted that this initiative comes as a response to Singapore's growing investments, particularly in establishing data centres within Malaysian borders.
He remarked: "Our commitment is to expedite Sarawak's proposal to export energy to Indonesia and Singapore."
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said both countries are moving towards a low-carbon and sustainable future, and they are pursuing cross-border electricity trading, which will be a win-win partnership for both countries.
"The renewable energy potentially can come from both the Peninsula and east Malaysia," he said.
In a joint statement, both leaders affirmed the commitment to collaborate on renewable energy co-development and cross-border electricity trading.
They acknowledged the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Singapore Power and Tenaga Nasional Bhd to explore the technical feasibility of a second interconnector.
The Plentong-Woodlands Interconnector had been upgraded in October 2022 to facilitate bidirectional electricity flows of approximately 1000 MW between the two countries, it said.
These efforts will further enhance energy security and enable greater renewable energy integration.
Anwar and Lee also took the opportunity to reiterate their countries' shared goal of strengthening regional interconnectivity through multilateral cross-border electricity trading initiatives such as the Lao PDR-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project (LTMS-PIP) and the Asean Power Grid, it said.
"Both leaders also looked forward to energy collaboration on other fronts, such as the sharing of low-carbon and renewable energy technologies, carbon capture and storage, and carbon credits," it said.