On Wednesday, China-headquartered energy technology firm Envision Group announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Singapore multinational Keppel Infrastructure Holdings and Thailand-based renewable energy company Impact Electrons Siam (IES) to collaborate on the development and supply of low-carbon electricity, storage and intermittency management solutions, and to pursue opportunities in grid interconnectivity across the ASEAN region.
According to a statement from the partners, Envision will leverage its expertise as a global green technology leader, together with Keppel’s strong track record of developing and operating large-scale sustainable energy infrastructure end-to-end, and IES’s leading renewable energy solutions in the Asia Pacific, to bring innovative, reliable and competitive renewable energy solutions to end-users in ASEAN. The MOU seeks to support the aspiration that ASEAN member nations have set, targeting a 23 percent share of renewables in the region’s total primary energy supply in 2025.
This MOU will see also all three parties leverage IES’s exclusive development rights issued by the Government of Lao PDR to increase the capacity of the current 600MW Monsoon Wind Power Project, which IES is developing in the Sekong and Attapeu provinces in Laos, by an additional 1,000MW. Targeted to reach commercial operations by 2023, the iconic Monsoon project will be the largest wind farm in ASEAN. The project, including the expansion, could offset over 90 million tons of carbon dioxide throughout its lifetime.
This collaboration for wind energy projects, including other potential renewables, like solar and biomass, will diversify Laos’ main source of renewable energy generation – hydropower, which is mainly generated during wet season. By building and integrating renewable sources with complementary generation profiles, coupled with energy and battery storage system, this collaboration seeks to supply stable and non-intermittent, yet flexible, low-carbon electricity to ASEAN nations evenly throughout the year.
This collaboration will also seek to use state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and internet of things technologies as well as “digital twin” technology – comprising advanced control systems, data analysis, active performance control, and reliability prediction capabilities, to enhance performance and delivery of services.
This partnership is expected to catalyze regional power interconnectivity between ASEAN countries and cross-border multilateral electricity trading so that countries with rich natural resources and access to renewable energy can offer renewable electricity supply to other countries that need such resources. This will in turn accelerate ASEAN’s low carbon energy transition and net zero carbon future as greater regional cooperation for renewable energy export and import can support more efficient allocation of resources, achieve economies of scale, increase the use of renewable energy, as well as allow nations to reduce their reliance on carbon-based energy.
“Riding on the recent signing of the exclusive framework agreement to study the feasibility of cross-border power trade from Laos to Singapore, which is part of the Laos PDR-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project (LTMS-PIP), an inter-government project, we are excited to work with Envision and IES on this collaboration,” Keppel Infrastructure CEO Cindy Lim said. “Developing large-scale renewable energy for cross-borders power trade in the region will be a significant step towards promoting greater energy security by diversifying energy supply sources as well as contributing to ASEAN’s plan for a low-carbon energy future. Aligned with Keppel’s Vision 2030, KI is intensifying our involvement in renewables and end-to-end decarbonization solutions. Besides renewable electricity cross-border trading, and renewable energy certificates (RECs) and voluntary carbon credits to be utilized in ASEAN in the near future, KI is also exploring the development of low-carbon energy alternatives like hydrogen and carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS).”
“We are pleased to be a part of this collaboration together with other leading energy solutions providers, Envision and Keppel, to further our aim of contributing to the global quest against climate change, starting from our home region,” IES CEO Peck Khamkanist said. “The collaboration brings each party’s unique and complementary skills together to tackle today’s pressing challenges with real world solutions. We are excited to roll up our sleeves to meet the challenges head on.”
“With climate change a pressing issue impacting ASEAN’s sustainable development, we see this strategic partnership with global leaders, such as Keppel Infrastructure and IES, crucial for the regions,” Envision Energy Chief Technology Officer George Wang said. “By combining Envision’s systematic net-zero capabilities and the complementary strengths from our partners, this collaboration will make a significant impact to the regions’ decarbonization and digitalization transition.”
Envision Group was ranked among the Top 10 of the 2019 ‘World’s 50 Smartest Companies’ by the MIT Technology Review. In October 2021, Envision was ranked second in the world on Fortune‘s “Change the World” list. Envision Group joined the global ‘RE100‘ initiative and became the first company in mainland China committed to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2025.
Keppel Infrastructure, meanwhile, has a track record of developing energy and environmental infrastructure end-to-end, including power generation assets, waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities, large-scale district cooling systems, as well as NEWater and desalination plants. In Singapore, it operates a 1,300-megawatt high efficiency gas-fired combined cycle power plant and a utility pipe rack and pipe line network in Jurong Island. It is also Singapore’s leading electricity retailer, and the first and largest district cooling systems developer and service provider. Globally, through Keppel Seghers, it is one of the leading WTE technology providers with more than 100 project references in 20 countries.
KI is currently expanding its presence, in Singapore and overseas, in areas such as power generation, waste management, district cooling, renewables and energy storage, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and other clean energy opportunities.
