KUALA LUMPUR, May 24 — Malaysia has a strong foundation to lead the development of smart and sustainable energy in the ASEAN region, especially through efforts to realise the ASEAN Power Grid (APG), said Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) Senior Chief Strategy, Regulatory and Sustainability Officer, Datuk Muhamad Nazri Pazil.
He said Malaysia’s strategic position at the heart of ASEAN, world-class grid infrastructure, mature energy ecosystem and policies that support the energy transition agenda give the country an advantage to play a greater role at the regional level.
“In terms of our strategic position, it allows us to collaborate with other energy utility partners through an initiative we call APG.
“With this APG, we can share energy. When there is high demand in a country, we can help,” he said in the Ruang Bicara program produced by BERNAMA TV on Thursday.
Muhamad Nazri said the Energy Transition Conference 2026 (ETCon26) which will take place from June 3 to 5, 2026 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre will be an important platform for ASEAN countries to discuss measures to accelerate the realisation of the APG.
He said the conference would be attended by participants from Malaysia, the ASEAN region and outside ASEAN, with approximately 2,000 delegates from various countries and technical backgrounds expected to attend.
“In the context of this ETCon, it is very noticeable because we provide the platform.”
“There will be participation from ASEAN countries and we can discuss how to further accelerate our desire to realise this APG,” he said.
Commenting further on cross-border energy cooperation, he said the Laos-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore (LTMS) initiative was the first connection that enabled commercial energy transfers and for security of supply purposes.
He said there were five other projects in planning and feasibility studies including the Vietnam-Malaysia-Singapore (VMS) connection, Sarawak-Peninsula-Singapore, as well as increasing Malaysia’s connectivity with Thailand and Singapore.
“If there is connectivity between ASEAN countries, we can strengthen the security of energy supply.
“We know that right now there are geopolitical issues, gas costs are also rising, so when we have renewable energy (RE) that can be shared, this means costs can be controlled,” he said.
Muhamad Nazri said such collaborations also enable renewable energy from countries such as Laos, which has hydro resources, and Vietnam, which has wind resources, to be channeled to other countries including Malaysia and Singapore.
Regarding ETCon26, he said the conference would be officiated by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, while Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy Transition and Water Transformation Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof would deliver the keynote address on the first day.
He said more than 80 speakers have confirmed their participation, in addition to 40 sponsors who will open their respective stalls throughout the conference.
He said ETCon26 would also focus on how energy and artificial intelligence (AI) could be combined to drive the energy transition in Malaysia and the Asian region.
Muhamad Nazri said ETCon26 should not stop as a mere conference space but rather should be translated into clear follow-up actions through strategic collaboration, investment and implementation.
“In ETCon26, there will be 16 strategic collaboration exchanges and launches,” he said.
He said the ultimate goal of ETCon is to be a catalyst for the actual implementation of the energy transition with visible impacts in the short, medium and long term.
— BERNAMA
