Speech by Min(EST) Tan See Leng at the Meranti Power Opening Ceremony

Mr Richard Lim, Chairman of Meranti Power,

Mr Tan Chor Kiat, Managing Director of Meranti Power,

Mr Hotta Toru, Deputy Chief of Mission and Minister at the Embassy of Japan in Singapore,

Mr Bob Tan, Chairman of Jurong Engineering Limited

Mr Takuya Murase, President and CEO, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Energy Systems

Mr Puah Kok Keong, Chief Executive, Energy Market Authority

Mr Ngiam Shih Chun, Deputy Secretary (Policy), Ministry of Home Affairs

1.              A very good afternoon to all of you. I am happy to be here to celebrate the opening of Meranti Power’s Open Cycle Gas Turbines, or OCGTs. Thank you for inviting me back here again after the groundbreaking ceremony in 2023.  

Ensuring energy security and reliability through decarbonisation

2.              Singapore is blessed to have one of the most reliable electricity systems in the world to support our key industries as well as our fellow Singaporeans. A customer experiences, on average, less than one interruption per year. When one occurs, it typically lasts only around 10 to 15 seconds. To achieve this, we constantly maintain, renew and expand our energy infrastructure to ensure sufficient generation capacity to meet demand. Our growing electricity demand and the entry of a wider range of energy sources will require us to step up our investments in generation assets to ensure the continued reliability of our energy system.

Meranti OCGTs are critical in building a more secure and resilient energy system

3.              Today, we are celebrating the opening of Meranti Power’s twin 341 MW OCGTs. These units will ensure our system has sufficient fast-start capacity, as part of our ongoing efforts to ensure energy security and system reliability.

4.              Today, almost all our electricity is generated by Combined Cycle Gas Turbines, or CCGTs. They are the most efficient thermal generating units available. However, CCGTs cannot start up quickly during contingency events, such as when other generating units run into technical issues and need to be urgently shut down. Therefore, many power systems also have fast-start generation units to complement CCGTs and mitigate unexpected imbalances in the system.

5.              OCGTs are one such fast-start generation technology. They can come online to start providing electricity supply within 10 minutes and reach full capacity within 25 minutes. In comparison, CCGTs can take up to 14 hours to start up from a cold state. Hence, OCGTs will complement our system’s CCGTs to minimise interruptions to electricity supply.

Critical role of the private sector in power generation

6.              The Government had commissioned Meranti Power to build these OCGTs in 2022, as there was no commercial interest from the private sector to do so. OCGTs are generally less competitive than CCGTs in the market. We had thus stepped in as a last resort, to ensure continued system resilience.

7.              Nevertheless, in our liberalised electricity market, the private sector will continue to play an important role in ensuring that we have sufficient generation capacity. The upcoming new H-Class CCGTs by Keppel, Sembcorp, YTL PowerSeraya and PacificLight Power will form a critical part of our baseload generation portfolio of the future.

8.              The Government is committed to partnering the private sector in ensuring sufficient generation capacity. We have implemented the centralised generation planting process in 2023 to coordinate private sector investment in new generation capacity that is in line with the forecasted growth in electricity demand. Under our Advanced CCGT Incentive Scheme, we have also awarded S$44 million to Keppel and Sembcorp to support their deployment of the first two advanced CCGTs in Singapore, which will be operational by end-2026.

Conclusion

9.              To conclude, I extend my warmest congratulations to all the staff of Meranti Power, EMA, and their partners for this milestone. I am confident that Meranti Power will remain instrumental in our push towards a secure, cost-competitive and sustainable energy system, and power Singapore towards SG100 and beyond.

10.          Thank you.