Weekly Brief: 13-19 October 2026

Weekly brief: 13–19 October 2026. Five items from the past week, with dates and sources. Figures are as published by the source named; where the public record is ambiguous we say so rather than resolving it.

• 13 October 2026 — First publicly announced construction start under MyBeST. Leader Energy began construction of a 100 MW / 400 MWh battery energy storage system at Pajam, Negeri Sembilan. It is the first of the four projects shortlisted under the Energy Commission’s MyBeST programme for which a construction start has been publicly announced. The other three have published milestones but not construction starts: the ERS Energy and ERS–Gamuda projects were reported on 10 June 2026 as having entered the “execution phase” after signing project agreements with the offtaker, and the Blueleaf Energy–Universal Peak project has reached financial close. (BusinessToday, 13 Oct 2026; SolarQuarter, 13 Oct 2026 and 10 Jun 2026)
• 12 October 2026 — ACE and IEA: the barriers are regulatory, not technical. Accelerating Battery Energy Storage System for vRE Integration, a joint white paper by the ASEAN Centre for Energy and the International Energy Agency published on 28 September 2026 and launched at the 44th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting in Manila on 7 October, finds that policy and market rules — not technology — are the main constraint on battery storage deployment in ASEAN. The paper groups ASEAN member states into three clusters — foundational, enabling and transformational — by variable renewable energy integration readiness and the maturity of national BESS policy and regulatory frameworks. Regional variable renewable capacity was 53.7 GW in 2024 and is projected at about 231 GW by 2030, roughly 28% of installed capacity. Regional data centre power demand is projected to rise from 2.6 GW in 2025 to 10.7 GW by 2035. (ASEAN Centre for Energy, 28 Sep 2026; Energy-Storage.News, 12 Oct 2026)
• 13 October 2026 — ASEAN Power Grid timeline under review. At the 44th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting in the Philippines, ministers agreed an enhanced planning framework for the ASEAN Power Grid. Philippine Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said ministers were considering accelerating the project and described the original 2045 connection target as “too far” — a statement of intent, not a confirmed decision. Nine of 18 priority interconnection projects, about 10 GW, were operational as of 2025, with a further 13.7 GW planned by 2040. The IEA puts cross-border interconnection needs at US$27 billion by 2040. (Climate Home News, 13 Oct 2026)
• 15 October 2026 — TNB restates its RP4 capex and renewable position. Speaking at the Youth Economic Forum 2026, TNB senior chief strategy, regulatory and sustainability officer Datuk Muhamad Nazri Pazil pointed to the approved Regulatory Period 4 capital expenditure of RM42.821 billion for 2025–2027 — RM26.554 billion base and RM16.267 billion contingent, per TNB’s own Bursa Malaysia announcement — citing data centre demand and electrification. TNB’s filing does not break that total into a separate grid or transmission figure. He put renewable energy at about 26.5% of TNB’s total generation capacity as of 2025, on installed green capacity of 4,303 MW, and noted the CRESS access charge cut to 14 sen from 20 sen and PETRA’s 10-year contract period between renewable energy developers and green consumers. (Malay Mail, 15 Oct 2026; TNB Bursa Malaysia announcement on RP4 implementation)
• 14–15 October 2026 — PLN replaces its president director after the Batam outage. An extraordinary general meeting of PT PLN (Persero) appointed Suroso Isnandar as president director (direktur utama), concurrently serving as acting director of project management and renewable energy, replacing Darmawan Prasodjo, who had held the post since December 2021. Yusuf Didi Setiarto was named deputy president director. Management issued its statement on Thursday 15 October; the change was notified to the exchange on 14 October. Danantara, PLN’s controlling shareholder, described the change as part of a push to improve the utility’s services and said PLN Batam would be moved directly under Danantara. The outage on Batam island began early on Monday 12 October, ran about 16 hours, and affected more than 411,000 customers along with water supply and telecommunications. Most services were restored by Tuesday, but PLN Batam was still running rolling blackouts on Wednesday because demand exceeded available capacity. (CNN Indonesia, 14 Oct 2026; The Star / ASEAN+, 15 Oct 2026; Bloomberg, 15 Oct 2026; PLN RUPSLB board listing via Iconomics, 16 Oct 2026)

Figures verified 19 October 2026 against the sources cited. Policy in this market changes quickly — check the primary source before relying on any number here.