| The operators of America's grid have a lot on their plate: rickety infrastructure, electricity-hungry data centers, 180-degree policy shifts and a permitting logjam. They should spare a thought for Puah Kok Keong. Puah, Singapore's top energy regulator, needs to keep the lights on while contending with faster power-demand growth than the U.S. He also has to work toward a 2050 net-zero emissions target. The really big problem? "Singapore is so small," Puah said. The often-cloudy, Memphis-size city-state could get at most 10% of its electricity from sunshine, Puah said, and that's if buildings are all plastered with solar panels. Wind speeds are sluggish and the mightiest river is 6 miles long, so wind turbines or hydroelectric dams won't cut it either. To solve the conundrum, Singapore is looking beyond its borders. One of Puah's priorities is importing renewable electricity from neighboring countries via subsea cables. First endorsed by Southeast Asia's governments in the 1990s, the idea of a regional grid is now gathering momentum, aided by Singapore's import plans. Whether it succeeds will help determine how much emissions rise as the region's economies expand. A project backed by TotalEnergies last month secured a conditional license from Puah's Energy Market Authority to send solar power from Indonesia to Singapore, the latest in a string of similar proposals. Singapore already has small grid connections with Laos and Malaysia. The next wave of projects will be much larger. Puah said the first of them could be connected by 2028, importing power from solar farms in Indonesia's Riau Islands, 60 miles or less from Singapore. Renewable-energy companies are in talks with equipment suppliers and power customers while mulling where to lay the cables, Puah said. That's the easy part. Cables to Vietnam and Cambodia would be about 10 times as long, to say nothing of a plan to import electricity from Australia. Currently there isn't enough cable, so Puah said he is trying to convince manufacturers to buy into the vision and add production capacity. Countries exporting electricity also need to be reassured they're getting a fair deal. | 
