Singapore looks for ways to prevent blackouts due to gas supply disruption
Tuesday, November 23 2004 - 04:45 PM WIB
'The roundtable discussion will be with the gas players and will focus on this interconnection issue,' a source told BT. The Energy System Review Committee was appointed in September in response to the June 29 blackout that hit 300,000 homes here. The latest in a series, that blackout was caused by a disruption to gas supply from the Natuna field when an intake valve at a pumping station operated by ConocoPhillips failed.
The committee, which will look into how Singapore can strengthen its electricity and gas delivery systems to prevent such blackouts, is expected to submit its recommendations by the first quarter of next year.
As the Natuna and Sumatra pipelines are at present on two separate grids, in case of disruption, they do not provide fallback for each other. So interconnecting them would make the gas system more robust.
While the two receiving stations for Natuna gas (operated by SembGas) and Sumatran gas (operated by PowerGas) are literally side-by-side on Jurong Island, 'it's not so simple as to just connect the two stations there', sources said.
This is because of different pipeline pressure for the two, and also the different gas quality. The latter, in turn, involves commercial complications, as one gas importer indemnifies customers in case of damage to equipment, while the other does not.
One of the proposals the committee will, therefore, explore is to provide the power stations here with dual pipelines separately bringing gas from the two Indonesian fields.
Gas Supply Pte Ltd, which imports Sumatra gas, already pipes this to PowerSeraya and Senoko Power and is building a pipeline, ready by April 2005, to Tuas Power.
SembGas, which brings in Natuna gas, already pipes supplies to Tuas Power and PowerSeraya, which means it only needs to build a pipeline to Senoko Power to provide double cover there for Indonesian gas.
'As both gas pipelines are also close by smaller electricity co-generation plants, like those run by SembCorp and ExxonMobil, and also that planned by Island Power, all they need do is to run short pipelines to connect with these,' said a source, adding that 'dual coverage need not be expensive'.
The advantage of dual pipelines is that this will give the power stations time to switch over in case of supply disruption in one pipeline. It will also avoid the issue of customer indemnity.(*)