Center to study Inter-ASEAN electrical grid
Center to study Inter-ASEAN electrical grid
MANILA (AFP): Plans for an electrical grid and a natural gas pipeline connecting member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be investigated by ASEAN officials, it was announced here yesterday.
The plans for the gas pipeline will be coordinated by an ASEAN Energy Center that is due to be created in a year while the grid interconnection will be taken up by the heads of each country's power utilities firm.
The plans were discussed at a conference of energy ministers of ASEAN countries that was held here this week, Philippine Energy Secretary Francisco Viray said in a news conference.
Viray said the ASEAN grid interconnection project would involve integrating several sub-regional interconnection projects that are already being implemented.
This includes an interconnection project covering Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, another project involving Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the southern Philippines and two other projects linking Indonesia and Malaysia to Thailand and Singapore.
Viray said that Australia was providing aid for a feasibility study on the grid interconnection to be carried out this year.
The 11-billion-dollar natural gas pipeline in turn is envisioned as linking the gas fields in Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines to provide natural gas to these countries as well as Singapore.
Philippine assistant energy secretary Guillermo Balce said the ASEAN Energy Center would be created from an existing ASEAN- European Union (EU) energy research center in Jakarta, to coordinate this project as well as other ASEAN energy programs.
Philippine President Fidel Ramos earlier said the pipeline would be 8,000 kilometers (4,960 miles) long. Construction of the project, first proposed in 1995, is expected to last beyond 2020.
Viray however said that the implementation of the projects would be "dictated by market forces," adding that "I don't think we can force these two projects" using state funds.
He said there was still no consensus on how involved the ASEAN governments would be in the planning of the projects but admitted that they would have to attract private investment to carry them out.
He said the two proposed projects were presented to the private sector for possible investment during an ASEAN forum in Kuala Lumpur last month.
At the conference, Ramos urged ASEAN countries to mobilize private sector funding for energy projects.
He noted that the Philippines has successfully ended a serious power-shortage from 1992 to 1993 by tapping private firms to set up power plants.
The Philippine example "could be of some value to our neighbors from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar who are today addressing their energy needs in their own quest for modernization," Ramos said.
Viray noted that Burma. Cambodia and Laos, which are due to join ASEAN next month, were taking part in the ASEAN energy conference as observers.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Cambodia, Laos and Burma are to join later this month.