Singapore Aug 5 partial blackout result of systems design-EMA: Report

Singapore's Energy Market Authority, or EMA, said Wednesday the partial blackout on Aug. 5 was a result of the natural gas system design, Dow Jones reported.

Gas supply from West Natuna, Indonesia, to seven power generating plants in Singapore was disrupted by an automated closure of an emergency safety shutdown valve last week.

The shutdown was triggered by a "false alarm," a fault that lies in the system design of an onshore receiving facility, or ORF, in Singapore, according to Conoco Indonesia Inc. Ltd., the operator of the ORF which receives gas piped from Natuna.

Conoco has since taken steps to "prevent a recurrence of the event by changing the computer logic in the automated safety system," according to a statement by Conoco.

Seven areas in Singapore experienced power failure for approximately one hour 28 minutes after 1,550 megawatts of generating capacity was lost from the power system.

EMA has established a task force comprising industry experts to examine how last week's power outage can be prevented from recurring in future.

Diversify Singapore's sources of natural gas, co-mingling gas from different sources, building liquefied natural gas receiving facilities are measures that could have prevented last week's incident, EMA Chief Executive Khoo Chin Hean said.

While EMA is still studying the prospect of using LNG as a fuel for power generation, a new tranche of natural gas supply from Sumatra in 2003 offers Singapore the option of pooling gas supplies into one network as a backup plan, Khoo said.

Natural gas, which provides 40 percent of Singapore power generation needs, is currently sourced from Malaysia and West Natuna in Indonesia.

Gas from Malaysia is used to fuel the Senoko Power Plant, while gas from Natuna fuels seven plants equipped with combined cycle turbines, capable of switching from its fuel from gas to oil.

The last time a power supply disruption of such severity occurred 10 years ago.

During the recent blackout, about 228 buildings across western, eastern and northern parts of Singapore were affected by the interruption of power supply. Eighty two percent of those affected were residential, and the remaining 18% were commercial and industrial premises. (*)