Scaling up investment in Southeast Asia’s regional power grid requires strong government leadership to embed projects into national plans and the creation of standardized, predictable rules for cross-border electricity trading. According to the authors of the newly released report, success also hinges on moving beyond state utility budgets by adopting alternative financing models and using international public funds to attract private capital.
“Strong institutional leadership is essential to kick-start project development,” the report states, emphasizing that governments should “Establish transparent, harmonised and predictable commercial arrangements for power trading” which “should be guided by regulation, not bespoke contracts.”
This means that for these massive undersea and overland cable projects to get built, they shouldn’t just be political ideas; they need to be part of each country’s official energy strategy. Instead of negotiating complex, one-off deals for every single power line, countries need a common set of rules for how electricity is bought and sold across borders. By making the income from these projects more certain and allowing private companies to own stakes alongside state utilities, the region can attract the billions of dollars needed for construction while sharing the risks more effectively.
The report “Financing the ASEAN Power Grid” was published by the International Energy Agency in Paris in March 2026. Lead author James Bragg and a team of analysts provide a comprehensive framework for unlocking the capital required to build a more integrated and sustainable energy future for Southeast Asia.
