Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA) on October 24 announced that it has given tentative approval for plans to import 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of primarily wind-generated electricity from Vietnam.

The latest conditional approval – given to power import projects preliminarily found to be technically and commercially viable – comes after similar authorisations for a 1 GW import plan from Cambodia and 2 GW from Indonesia earlier in the year.

The Vietnam power import venture, involving Singapore’s Sembcorp Utilities (SCU) and Vietnam’s state-owned PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation (PTSC), includes the laying of subsea power cables spanning around 1,000 kilometres between the two countries.

During an official visit of Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh to Singapore in February 2023, PTSC and SCU signed an investment cooperation agreement for energy export to Singapore from offshore renewable energy in Vietnam.

Accordingly, PTSC and SCU will cooperate to invest in an offshore wind farm in Vietnam with an initial capacity of about 2.3 GW and export electricity directly to Singapore via a high-voltage underground cable.

Sembcorp said the Vietnam offshore wind farm could start operating by 2033 subject to approvals and barring unforeseen events.

To achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the Singapore Government plans to import 30% of its electricity needs by 2035 from clean energy sources as well as introduce a progressive carbon tax roadmap.