China offers the Global Energy Interconnections (GEI) as a planetary project to deliver sustainable development and climate action through large-scale energy transition by interconnecting most of the world’s grids. What does this mean for Southeast Asian countries’ regional quest for greater energy connectivity? While the envisaged China-Southeast Asia interconnections promise a durable regional energy connectivity, bringing distant renewable energy to demand centers using GEI technologies, these future energy systems are not free of technical and political challenges. A closer look at this future interconnections further reveals other chokepoints: politically powerful domestic energy regimes; levels of trust between China and Southeast Asian countries; aging and absent transmission infrastructures; heterogeneous national energy markets and regulations; and differing receptions and perceptions towards China’s externalization of its surplus industrial capacity.

Cite

Delina, Laurence L. 2021. Promises and pitfalls of China-Southeast Asia energy connectivity. Energy Strategy Reviews, Vol. 33, 100574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2020.100574.