The Edge Singapore | 30 August 2025 — Singapore’s energy consumption today clearly reflects Southeast Asia’s (SEA) broader growth story. The city-state now consumes nearly 55 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, about 30% higher than a decade ago, driven by rapid digitalisation, urban growth and economic expansion.
Across SEA, the trend is similar; growing populations and industries are powering sharp increases in energy demand.
This rapid growth makes transitioning from fossil fuels challenging, due to the region’s established infrastructure and lower upfront costs associated with coal and oil.
Additionally, fossil fuels offer stable and dependable baseload power, a reliability that intermittent renewable sources, like wind and solar, cannot yet consistently match.
For SEA’s business leaders and policymakers, the task ahead isn’t simply choosing between fossil fuels and renewables, it’s about intelligently integrating cleaner technologies into existing energy systems to ensure stability, affordability and sustainability as the region navigates towards net-zero emissions.
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