Brunei to Import Electricity from Sarawak Starting in Early 2027
Brunei is set to import electricity from Sarawak in Malaysia starting in early 2027, marking a notable shift in the Sultanate’s energy landscape. Sarawak’s Deputy Minister of Energy and Environmental Sustainability, Datuk Dr. Hazland Hipni, confirmed that the Malaysian state aims to extend its power export network––which already connects to the states of Sabah and Kalimantan––to Brunei as part of its growth strategy.
Sarawak has been exporting 50 megawatts (MW) of electricity to Sabah and will soon scale this up to 300 MW. In the next phase, Sarawak will start electricity exports to Brunei, followed by the Philippines via Palawan, and eventually to Singapore under the Low-Carbon Power Framework (LCPF), a$ 20 million program funded by the UK’s Prosperity Fund with an end-goal to build a sustainable key energy supply chain in ASEAN.
This initiative support Brunei’s climate and energy-transition objectives to lower emissions. Access to Sarawak’s power could help Brunei scale up domestic renewables and pilots new technologies like green hydrogen. Regionally, clean, scalable power flowing toward Singapore and surrounding countries will deepen Brunei’s integration into the Borneo and ASEAN power grids. This linkage could directly feed the hyperscale expansion of data centers in the region and, longer term, it also lays the groundwork for energy-intensive manufacturing, including semiconductors, as ASEAN deepens its industrial base.
