21 July, 2010
HANOI -- Southeast Asian officials discussed plans Tuesday to build a transitional gas pipeline and regional electricity grids, but said consensus would be difficult among the 10-nation bloc.
Proposals for regional power grids have been on the agenda of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) for more than a decade, but non-uniform grid systems have obstructed the plan.
“The conference has discussed a series of issues relating to cooperation between ASEAN countries in energy fields,” Pham Khanh Toan, director of Vietnam's Institute of Energy.
“The reason why ASEAN countries cannot reach any agreements in this issue stems from political problems, not from technical ones,” said Tran Viet Ngai, chairman of the Vietnam Energy Association.
Toan said countries like Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia favored the idea, but that Thailand was cool to it while Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore were uncommitted. The latter four countries could supply enough electricity for themselves, Ngai said, while Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia were facing shortages.
Ngai said so far ASEAN countries could not agree how much money each country would pay into project and specify the starting points of pipeline and grid for defining the costs for each country to get the pipeline into its territory.
Furthermore, some ASEAN members feared a joint grid and pipeline could create dependency situations like those observed from Russia and Ukraine, he added.
In the long run, however, ASEAN members would approve the plan, Ngai said. “ASEAN countries will have to harmonize interests between its members.”
Vietnam has established electricity grids with bordering provinces of Laos, Cambodia and China to buy and sell electricity.
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