Singapore's power plants to be 90% gas-fired in 1 to 2 years: Report

Singaporeans may soon be able to enjoy more competitively priced electricity as power plants here switch to being 90 percent gas-fired in one or two years' time.

In contrast, about 60 percent of power in Singapore was generated by oil-fired plants three years ago.

The goal of Singapore's largest and oldest power generation company, Senoko Power, is to have a lean and green operation.

It has invested about S$600 million to convert its old steam-based plants to gas-fired ones.

With these refurbished plants, Senoko is able to reduce fuel cost by about 20 percent.

Roy Adair, Chief Executive, Senoko Power, said: "We have built this combined cycle gas technology capability which makes us the largest gas fired capability in Singapore for the expressed purpose of being able to supply to our customers competitive priced and clean, environmentally, electricity. So those prices have already been translated into contracts that we've signed for one, two years or more, in some cases with our retail customers."

At present, Senoko provides about 30 per cent of Singapore's electricity supply.

With the new re-powered plants, the company hopes to compete more effectively in the retail market.

Senoko's management is also confident that they have sufficient back-up sources if power failure occurs.

During the recent blackout, Senoko was able to respond by increasing its electricity production to provide about 50 percent of Singapore's electricity load.

The company has a dual fuel supply from Malaysia and Indonesia, and is able to switch quickly from one gas source to another, if and when there's an emergency.

Adair said: "We have over 90 days supply of fuel capability that deal with any prolonged gas outage, should there be one, and the second factor is that also we have diesel fired capability, and our diesel fired capability at Pasir Panjang was able to ramp up very quickly on the 29 June to deal with a shortage."

Natural gas plants also produced less carbon emission.

For instance, Senoko's recently completed combined cycle plant 4, effectively cuts greenhouse gas emissions by about 800,000 tonnes per annum. That's equivalent to the emissions of all private cars in Singapore.

Speaking at the plant handover ceremony on Monday, Minister of the Environment Lim Swee Say said the country's target is to improve its carbon efficiency by at least 25 per cent from the 1990 levels.(*)