Australia’s SunCable receives conditional approval from Singapore
Singapore’s Power System Operator and Regulator, the EMA (Energy Market Authority), announced yesterday the conditional approval of SunCable’s AAPowerLink – a proposed 2 GW HVDC interconnector between Australia and Singapore.
The bold proposal would see up to 2 GW of renewable energy exported from Australia’s Northern Territory, supplying up to 15% of Singapore’s electricity demand. With an estimated length of around 4300 km, it would be the world’s longest DC transmission project and the world’s longest power transmission cable by far- the current record for longest power cable is held by Viking Link, totalling 768 km.
Proposed electricity import projects from Indonesia,Cambodia, Vietnam and Australia have thus far achieved conditional approval from the EMA. However, SunCable considers this a substantial vote of confidence for such a bold and pioneering project; Singapore’s EMA have officially determined the project “is technically and commercially viable”
Mitesh Patel, interim CEO of SunCable International, said “Today’s announcement is a vote of confidence in the commercial and technical viability of our project. Obtaining condition approval means SunCable can move forward with the next phase of development and commercial activities and strengthening our partnership with Indonesia,”
AAPowerLink’s approval from Singapore’s EMA yesterday follows a string of recent milestones for the project, including environmental approval from the Australian local and federal governments, along with approval for the subsea survey in Indonesian waters.
However, with it’s bold ambitions, SunCable has also faced it’s fair share of difficulties. The company was formed in 2019 and backed by Australian billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest. Construction on AAPowerLink was initially planned to start in 2023 with first power delivered to Singapore in 2026.
Unfortunately, the project collapsed in 2023 when SunCable entered administration after a reported disagreement between Cannon-Brookes and Forrest over the project’s direction. A Cannon-Brookes-led consortium called Grok Ventures subsequently acquired SunCable and now has a revised plan to supply Singapore by the early 2030s.
Whilst the technical and economic concepts for AAPowerLink maybe sound, there have been concerns raised about real-world constraints, not least the 8600 km of +/- 525kV HVDC cable required; not easy to come by nowadays,with global supply chains busy fulfilling their already-bulging order books. To overcome this challenge, SunCable plan to construct a new dedicated cable manufacturing facility in Tasmania to produce the entire cable themselves.
However, a young start-up with no previous experience in delivering energy projects tackling one of the largest energy projects in the world, whilst simultaneously creating their own high-tech manufacturing facilities, is not without risk.
Nevertheless, such bold projects will inevitably face challenges, and AAPowerLink would certainly be an impressive and pioneering project. If successful, this project may be a first of its kind, ushering in a number of new subsea transmission projects over enormous distances.
