National Energy Grid
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Full Size Map National Electricity Transmission Grid of Singapore(342 kb) |
GRID SUMMARY
Singapore is in the process of restructuring and privatizing its electric power sector, which is to transform what was a monopoly into a competitive market. Two subsidiaries of state-owned Singapore Power, PowerSeraya and PowerSenoko, along with Tuas Power, are currently generating electricity. PowerGrid, another subsidiary of Singapore Power, maintains and operates the country's electricity transmission and distribution system. The Singaporean government currently owns majority stakes in all of these firms through holding companies. The process of privatization has been repeatedly delayed, and current plans call for the Singporean government to divest its stakes in the electric utility sector in 2004.
A regulatory agency for the country's electric
utility sector, the Energy Markets Authority (EMA)
was created in April 2001. It is working out the
details of the privatization process. Natural gas
importer SembCorp already has entered the power
generation business as an independent power producer
(IPP), completing the construction of a 815-megawatt
(MW) gas-fired plant under
the name SembCorp Cogen. The facility began operation
in September 2001. Malaysia's Tenaga Nasional has
expressed interest in entering Singapore's power
market after deregulation. It would either sell
power from its grid in Malaysia to customers in
Singapore, or possibly purchase generation assets
in Singapore.
Most of the state-owned utilities' generating capacity has been converted from fuel oil to natural gas as it has become available. Most new planned capacity also will burn natural gas. Tuas Power awarded a contract to Mitsubishi in 2001 for two 367-MW combined cycle generating units, which are to be completed in 2006. The current economic slwodown, however, has largely stalled expansion of electricity generating capacity in Singapore.