Japan's TEPCO backs $100m Southeast Asia cleantech fund

TEPCO is participating via its recently established Greenway Grid Global investment unit. The three investors have contributed $60 million to the fund, which will be managed in Singapore under the name CleanGrid Partners. The fund aims to build a portfolio worth up to $300 million within four years.

CleanGrid will invest in projects developing technologies related to decentralized and environmentally sound energy production, with an emphasis on smart microgrids for off-grid power supply to the estimated 100 million people in Southeast Asia with no or little access to electricity.

Atem Ramsundersingh, CEO of WEnergy, told AVCJ that CleanGrid took six years to form due to a prevailing conservatism in the energy investment space. He said that potential LPs in the fund, including commercial banks and development finance institutions, would need to change their policies about backing small projects in order to tap a $30 billion microgrid market in Southeast Asia.

"Most of the traditional energy investors, insurance companies, and pension funds look for the easy, plug-and-play stuff, which is very hard to do in this part of the world because the grids are not ready for big-sized projects," Ramsundersingh said. "The future is in decentralized power systems. Politically, there is a big need, but for a lot of large investors, this game is not on their radar screen yet, and they're missing a big opportunity."

CleanGrid's first confirmed project is a microgrid in the Philippines in which WEnergy is a 40% shareholder. The $9 million project has been 70% financed by the Development Bank of the Philippines. CleanGrid aims to replicate this effort across the region and claims to be developing several other pipeline projects across the Philippines, Indonesia, and Myanmar. In Singapore, the firm will pursue microgrid projects at the industrial level.

TEPCO, Japan's largest utility company, is an active participant in this space, having invested in Singapore-based Electrify, a blockchain-enabled power marketplace. This followed closely on a $30 million ICO for the company that included participation by venture capital firm Global Brain. In 2017, TEPCO launched a joint venture with ICMG intended to support the development of innovative energy business models and companies.

Other recent activity in this space includes a $20 million venture investment in The AI Grid Foundation, a Singapore-based company that promotes decentralized renewable energy usage. AI Grid is developing a program known as Eloncity, which aims to remove barriers to universal, safe, secure, and affordable electricity services through a community-based approach.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Cleantech
• Infrastructure
• Fundraising
• Technology
• Singapore
• energy