Reflections from EnergyTag’s October 2025 Journey Across Singapore, Taipei, and Shanghai

In the last week of October 2025, the EnergyTag team travelled across Singapore, Taipei, and Shanghai for a series of workshops and technical dialogues. We expected to engage stakeholders and hear diverse perspectives. What we didn’t expect was just how advanced, coordinated, and future-ready these Asian energy markets already are when it comes to granular electricity accounting and round-the-clock clean power / 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy (CFE).

Across three countries in nine days, we saw something clear and unmistakable:

Asia Pacific is not preparing for the next generation of clean-power markets; it is already building them.

And each market is doing so in its own way:

  • Singapore, through transparency and regional interconnection,
  • Taiwan, through a future renewable market based on sub-hourly matching and tracking, and;
  • China, through reform momentum, renewable scale, real-time carbon accounting, and a uniquely strong academic–policy ecosystem.

This blog captures what we learned, and why we came back more optimistic than ever about APAC’s role in shaping the future of global clean electricity.

Singapore (24 October): Transparency, Imports, and the Architecture of Trust

Singapore was our first stop, and right from the opening moments of the workshop, co-organized with the Energy Market Company (EMC), it became clear that Singapore’s power system operates with a level of data transparency and operational precision that many larger markets can only aspire to.

Singapore’s entire market, from wholesale bidding to half-hourly settlement, is digitized, audited, and the data is accessible on demand. The market operators, regulators, and retailers all work within a culture where data is not an afterthought; it is the foundation of credibility.

This transparency matters because Singapore’s future depends on something unprecedented- importing up to 6 GW of low-carbon electricity by 2035, nearly a third of its total consumption. According to TransitionZero’s modelling, a 1 GW import from Indonesia could raise Singapore’s clean electricity share from 2.7% to 10%, avoiding 2.8 Mt CO₂e of emissions per year.

And under emerging global rules, including the upcoming revisions to the GHG Protocol Scope 2 guidance, the EU’s CBAM, and the evolving standards for clean hydrogen, imported clean electricity must be verified hour by hour.

In other words:

  • Trust requires transparency.
  • Transparency requires data.
  • Data requires granularity.

Singapore already has all three – and it’s moving beyond them, with the Energy Market Authority (EMA) granting conditional approval for a 1 GW hydropower import from Sarawak via subsea cable, positioning the island-state for clean-power imports.

There was also refreshing honesty in the discussions – stakeholders acknowledged that while demand for granular certificates is still emerging, the opportunity exists in hourly-backed retail products and providing market mechanisms for granular certificate trading to create a price signal and transparency. 

Singapore felt like a market ready for action – not because granularity or 24/7 CFE is trendy, but because transparency, reliability, and system efficiency matter.

We left Singapore with a clear view:

This small island nation could become Southeast Asia’s most trusted hub for credible, hourly tracked clean electricity.

Taipei (27 October): When Sub-Hourly Tracking Is Already Within Reach

Taiwan was our second stop, and it delivered a different kind of surprise, not in ambition, but in technical readiness.

Our workshop, hosted by the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) with support from BSMI and the T-REC Center, drew a full room of policymakers, retailers, corporate buyers, and analysts. But beyond the strong participation, one fact stood out above everything:

Taiwan already has the data infrastructure to issue hourly / sub-hourly EACs today.

Thanks to the deployment of over 3 million smart meters and the T-REC system’s reliance on 15-minute data, Taiwan’s clean energy certification framework is already one of the most granular in Asia. What it lacks is not technology, but timing and policy alignment.

This readiness sits at the intersection of several major transitions:

  • Taiwan’s nuclear phase-out is complete.
  • Gas now dominates power generation.
  • Offshore wind is expanding rapidly.
  • Corporate PPAs, led by giants like TSMC, are reshaping demand.

At the same time, Taiwan faces structural renewable constraints such as limited flat land for solar, challenging terrain for onshore wind, and a growing reliance on offshore wind, which is capital-intensive and requires significant grid investment.

However, as per the recent modelling by TransitionZero reinforces the potential of achieving 80% hourly CFE for just 5% of Taiwan’s demand could save the system nearly US$1 billion and cut around 5 MtCO₂e each year – all at a cost (~US$92/MWh) that is lower than recent wholesale tariffs. Importantly, these benefits are achievable largely through solar, onshore wind, and geothermal, without relying on expensive offshore wind expansion. 

As the economy looks ahead to energy security, competitiveness, hourly matching becomes not only desirable but necessary.

A standout point in Taipei came from Dr. Yenhaw Chen, Director at influential think tank Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER), who noted that most SMEs cannot manage the complexity of 24/7 CFE on their own. The solution, he argued, is for retailers to offer turnkey hourly-matched clean-energy products, similar to Europe’s green retail models. It was a clear reminder that markets scale when service providers simplify access to high-quality, clean electricity.

BSMI’s newly developed Green Electricity Market Flexibility Allocation Pilot Program for Taipower is a step in that direction, enabling a range of matching options and allowing both buyers and sellers to choose the level of granularity they need.

Our conclusion from Taipei was simple:

Taiwan is arguably Asia’s most technically prepared market for sub-hourly, data-backed energy attribute certificates, something that is not widely recognised beyond its borders.

Shanghai (29 October): Scale, Reform, and a Deeply Analytical Energy Culture

Our final stop was Shanghai, and it left the deepest impression.

The workshop, co-organized with TianGong Think Tank and Tsinghua University, brought together a remarkable range of participants from State Grid, the National Center for Climate Change Strategy (NCSC), SGERI, the Beijing Power Trading Center, LONGi, The Lantau Group, and academia.

China is often discussed in terms of scale, and for good reason. No country builds renewable energy, storage, or transmission infrastructure faster or at a larger scale. But what impressed us was not just the size, but the sophistication of thinking – the end goal is a power system that is capable of integrating and delivering clean power reliably.

1. A global leader in renewable deployment and electrification

China added more solar in one year than the entire world added the year before. Non-fossil capacity surpassed coal in 2024. Electric vehicles and industrial electrification continue to accelerate at record levels. Massive HVDC lines move clean energy from the west to the industrial east.

This matters for granularity because the more renewable energy enters the system, the more important its timing and location become to ensure successful integration.

2. Power market reforms are moving fast

China’s reforms are designed for scale:

  • Spot markets are expanding across provinces and will be completed by 2025.
  • Interprovincial trading is increasing with growing HVDC interconnectors between renewable-rich provinces and the demand center.
  • Renewables shifting from fixed tariffs to market-based pricing.
  • Storage and demand response are being redefined as core system resources.

It is rare to see such a large-scale market redesign progressing with this speed and coherence.

3. The push for real-time grid emission factors

One of the most important insights from the trip was China’s work on real-time, location-specific grid emission factors, an effort driven not only by international compliance, but even more by China’s need to integrate the world’s largest and fastest-growing renewable capacity into a reliable, market-based power system. 

Current annual average emission factors mask the seasonal and daily variation in renewable production – those designing the system are acutely aware of this. Higher emission granularity can provide the right incentives for enterprises to respond to time-varying emission factors and invest in storage and demand flexibility to reduce product lifecycle carbon emissions. 

With EU mechanisms like CBAM and the Battery Regulation increasingly relying on electricity carbon-intensity data, ensuring accurate representation of China’s grid emissions becomes essential for global transparency and comparability. For context, the widely used European Ecoinvent database records China’s grid emission factor at 1.155 kgCO₂/kWh, nearly 1.8 times higher than the official figure published for Jiangsu Province (0.6451 kgCO₂/kWh).

China’s academic, power grid, and policy communities are explicitly working to increase the accuracy of grid emission accounting. China is now developing time-differentiated, location-specific grid emission factors that capture the real conditions of its power system, from real-time generation and dispatch decisions to interprovincial transmission flows, curtailment events, and even storage charging and discharging cycles. 

4. A deep respect for academia and evidence-based policy

A central theme of the trip to China was witnessing the close coordination between government bodies and academic institutions.

In China, academic researchers are not external observers; they are central contributors to methodology, policy formulation, and system design. The workshop discussions were deeply analytical, forward-looking, and disciplined in their approach to data and system beneficial behavior.

This environment, where academics, policymakers, and industry share a common technical language, may turn out to be China’s greatest strength in implementing granular electricity accounting and markets at scale.

Our takeaway from China:

China is not only prepared for granularity, it is on track to build the world’s largest and most sophisticated renewable electricity market system, driven by scale, reform momentum, LCA depth, and its academic–policy ecosystem.

Why Storage and Granularity Must Shape APAC’s Next Chapter

Across Singapore, Taipei, and Shanghai, one theme came through clearly – renewable markets work best when storage and flexibility are built into the system from the start.

Globally, regions (e.g., Europe) with high renewable penetration are now experiencing challenges – from negative prices to reduced hedging value in PPAs – largely because clean energy is supplied “when available” rather than when needed. Markets that grew rapidly on pay-as-produced solar and wind, without integrating storage, are now facing volatility, lower contract value, and weaker investment signals.

The modelling and discussions in Singapore, Taiwan, and China show a consistent pattern – when clean electricity is matched hourly, supported by storage, and reliably tracked to enable hourly consumption claims, the system can be cheaper, cleaner, and more credible. However, these solutions are still emerging across all three markets, but the foundations are strong. Each market is progressing from a very different starting point, with distinct strengths and constraints. Their trajectories may differ, yet together they have a rare opportunity to build systems that avoid the challenges seen in more advanced regions, where renewables expanded faster than flexibility, storage, and time-based tracking could keep up.

Three Markets, One Direction: Granularity as a Design Principle

Across Singapore, Taipei, and Shanghai, we saw a common pattern emerging:

  • Granularity is not being pursued for symbolism; it solves real system challenges.
  • Stakeholders are deeply informed and highly engaged.
  • Digital infrastructure (meters, market data, SCADA) is already in place.
  • Regulators understand the link between hourly matching, flexibility, and system reliability.
  • Global supply chains, especially in energy, cement, aluminum, steel, and industrial goods, are pushing for higher integrity in carbon claims.

In a world where carbon transparency is now tied to trade competitiveness, global standards, and the hydrogen economy, the APAC region is showing what credibility looks like.

Reflections: What This Trip Taught Us

By the end of the week, one thing was certain:

APAC is not following global trends; APAC is co-creating them.

Singapore is designing the architecture for trusted cross-border clean energy.

Taipei is ready for sub-hourly certificates built on real data infrastructure.

China is building the world’s most ambitious renewable electricity ecosystem.

And across all three markets, we encountered thoughtful, technically sophisticated stakeholders who are not waiting for the world to tell them what to do; they are shaping the future themselves.

EnergyTag’s Next Steps in APAC

Our APAC trip made one thing clear- the region is ready for round-the-clock clean power supported by granular electricity accounting, and collaboration will determine how quickly it becomes a reality.

We’re grateful for the openness we experienced in Singapore, Taipei, and Shanghai, and we see enormous potential in continuing these partnerships.

If you’re a policymaker, academic, industry leader, or technology innovator working on clean-power markets, we welcome collaboration.

Together, we can build credible, transparent, round-the-clock clean-energy systems across APAC.

This journey is just beginning.