ASEAN Power Grid Financing Facility (APGF) Secretariat

APG is central to ASEAN’s vision of a connected, secure, and sustainable energy future. By 2045, a fully integrated regional grid would enable the ASEAN Member States to share electricity across borders, enhancing security, affordability, and resilience, and accelerating the clean energy transition.

The financing needs to realise that the APG is immense. Cross-border interconnections, subsea cables, and advanced transmission systems require billions in investment, along with strong coordination across jurisdictions. The challenge is not only to raise capital, but also to ensure alignment of funding sources, risks, and project bankability.

The APGF is an ASEAN-coordinated response to this challenge.

The APGF facilitates end-to-end support across the project cycle.

·     Project Identification – Aligning regional and national priorities, guided by the ASEAN Interconnection Masterplan Studies (AIMS) and other emerging interconnection projects to advance the APG initiative.

·     Early Preparation – Supporting studies and data gathering to build bankability.

·     Advanced Preparation – Structuring projects, addressing regulatory, commercial and technical barriers, conducting detailed engineering and environmental and social studies, and aligning partner support.

·     Financing and De-risking – Soliciting tailored instruments such as guarantees, concessional loans, blended finance, and credit enhancements. At present, this does not entail any legal, commercial or financial commitment.

·     Maximising Regional Integration: Supporting solutions that optimise development impact benefits across countries.

·     Effective Advocacy: Generating robust data and evidence of APG project benefits from both a national and regional perspective and elevating projects for ASEAN prioritisation.

·     Mobilising Finance at Scale: Leveraging the catalytic role of MDBs to mobilise diverse financing sources, including private sector investment through tailored instruments.

·     Inclusive and Flexible Approach: Facilitating timely support for projects through existing ASEAN mechanisms and direct utility/developer engagement.

·     Public and Private Engagement: Supporting both government-led and private sector-led projects, including interconnectors and domestic grid infrastructure.

The APGF brings together different solutions to deliver end-to-end financing support for APG projects. The initiative intends to facilitate, accelerate, and mobilise support across four critical phases: project identification, early preparation, advanced preparation, and structuring for capital investment.

·     APGF Working Group. A coordination body consisting of the ASEAN Secretariat, the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the World Bank, that will manage the APGF work programme and develop processes for utilities and project sponsors to seek support from financing partners. The APGF Working Group does not provide any advisory services or investment advice in the context of the APGF.

·     Partners for ASEAN Connectivity on Energy (PACE). A platform to strengthen collaboration on APG financing, by convening multilateral development banks, development finance institutions, financial institutions, and donors to better align technical and financing support for projects.

·     Mechanisms to mobilise assistance. Promotion of project-level information sharing and the establishment of new mechanisms for project sponsors and developers to request technical and/or financial assistance at every project stage.

·     Knowledge Exchange. Sharing of international best practices in structuring, risk mitigation, and benefit-sharing mechanisms, drawing from successful cross-border projects in other regions to accelerate APG development.