Singapore gives conditional approval for renewable energy import from Sarawak

October 17, 2025, by Nadja Skopljak

The Energy Market Authority of Singapore (EMA) has given its conditional approval for the import of renewable energy from Sarawak in Malaysia to Singapore through subsea cables spanning over 700 kilometers.

Sembcorp Utilities, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sembcorp Industries, and Sarawak Energy Berhad, Malaysia’s largest renewable energy developer, announced the conditional approval today, October 17.

Described as Singapore’s first large-scale 24/7 power import initiative, the project envisages the import of an estimated 1 GW of renewable energy to Singapore, generated predominantly from hydropower sources in Sarawak, with operations expected to begin around 2035.

So far, the consortium has signed a preferred supplier agreement with Italian cabling giant Prysmian to optimize the design, installation methodology and protection requirements for the subsea interconnector cable.

SP PowerInterconnect will support the project as a technical partner.

“We are pleased to receive our second Conditional Approval for low-carbon electricity import. Together with an earlier Conditional Approval to bring in 1.2GW of renewable electricity from Vietnam, this brings us closer to achieving 2.2GW of imports, contributing to Singapore’s 6GW target by 2035 and advancing the development of a regional power grid,” said Wong Kim Yin, Group Chief Executive Officer of Sembcorp Industries.

According to Sembcorp, besides facilitating renewable energy imports, the project strengthens regional cooperation, enhances energy resilience and serves as a key building block of the ASEAN Power Grid.