Singapore clears 900MW Malaysian renewable import deal as Johor grid strain deepens
Sembcorp and Ditrolic's approved cross-border project targets 2029 operations, with Johor data centres already absorbing half of Peninsular Malaysia's maximum demand.
Singapore has approved renewable power imports of up to 900MW from Malaysia, with Sembcorp and Ditrolic targeting 2029 operations using solar and battery storage built in Johor. The project will generate around 830GWh of clean energy annually once complete, a senior Singaporean official said in late May (2026-05-29).1
Johor's grid is the reason this deal is structured the way it is. Wood Mackenzie data show data centres could account for around 40% of Johor's end-user electricity consumption by 2035, up from about 24% as of June 2026 (2026-06-21). The state's data centre load more than doubled between 2024 and 2025, and Johor already accounts for an estimated 51% of total data centre maximum demand across Peninsular Malaysia.3
The supply picture looks adequate on paper. Johor carries about 6.8GW of installed generation capacity, mainly natural gas and coal-fired plant, against current electricity demand of around 2.6GW. But Wood Mackenzie put Johor's data centre maximum demand alone at about 3.8GW — nearly one-and-a-half times current total state demand. Generation headroom is shrinking fast.3
Grid access, not generation capacity, has become the binding constraint. As of June 2025, only 1.3GW of Corporate Renewable Energy Supply Scheme agreements had been signed in Peninsular Malaysia, all tied to data centre projects in Johor — less than half of current data centre demand in the state.3
The Singapore import approval is one piece of a broader regional rewiring that the senior Singaporean official said could eventually produce a cross-regional network. Chinese energy companies are positioned to benefit across multiple layers of that integration, the official noted.1
Other cross-border deals in the pipeline illustrate the scale. CRE International, a unit of China National Nuclear Corporation, signed an agreement with Singapore's Equator Renewables Asia to build a solar photovoltaic facility with a maximum capacity of 900MW and a 1.2GWh battery storage system. Contemporary Amperex Technology will supply half the battery storage for a separate solar-and-battery project in Indonesia slated to export 300MW directly to Singapore.1
Malaysia's national trajectory looks supportive, at least on capacity totals. GlobalData forecasts installed renewable capacity will rise to about 31.5GW by 2035 from roughly 6.9GW in 2025, with renewable generation climbing to 46.4TWh from 10.1TWh over the same period. Malaysia is on course to exceed its National Energy Policy 2040 renewable capacity target of 18.43GW by 2031, GlobalData said.2
But headline capacity growth does not resolve the Johor-specific grid access crunch. About 2.1GW of Johor's coal-fired generation capacity is scheduled for retirement in the mid-2030s, according to Wood Mackenzie. The Southern Johor Renewable Energy Corridor could add up to 4GWp of solar capacity integrated with battery storage, partially offsetting those retirements — but only partially.3
Wood Mackenzie said Malaysia's NewGen26 programme, an open tender for 6GW to 8GW of new gas-fired capacity, will be important for maintaining long-term reliability and supporting industrial growth. That tender sits alongside the NEP, MyRER, NETR and the 13th Malaysia Plan as the policy architecture supporting renewable expansion.3,2
The 2029 target date for the Sembcorp-Ditrolic project coincides with the period when Johor's data centre buildout is most likely to intensify grid congestion. With the 1.3GW of signed supply agreements already falling short of current data centre demand, and coal retirements scheduled to begin removing capacity in the following years, the allocation of grid connection slots between domestic hyperscale consumers and cross-border export flows will be the friction point worth tracking.3,1