Singapore's fourth desalination plant underscores Keppel's Vision 2030

THE development of Singapore's fourth desalination plant, the Keppel Marina East Desalination Plant (KMEDP), underscores the Keppel group's new direction to pivot to sustainable solutions.

Ong Tiong Guan, chief executive of Keppel Infrastructure, said: "The development and operation of the KMEDP is very much in line with Keppel's Vision 2030, which envisages the group providing environmental solutions to contribute to sustainable urbanisation."

The plant which officially opened on Thursday, has been in commercial operations since June 2020.

Operated by Keppel Infrastructure's wholly-owned subsidiary Marina East Water, the plant - which can produce up to 137,000 cubic metres (cu m) of fresh drinking water per day, is able to meet about 7 per cent of Singapore's daily water demand.

Under a Design, Build, Own and Operate (DBOO) arrangement with PUB, Keppel Infrastructure's 25-year water purchase agreement to supply desalinated water to the national water agency runs from 2020 to 2045.

A Keppel Infrastructure spokesperson told The Business Times that the fee structure comprises two portions: the availability payment for capital recovery and fixed operating costs, as well as output payment for variable operating costs.

The spokesperson declined to disclose the offtake agreement price as it is "commercially sensitive". How often the fee structure is reviewed was also undisclosed.

KMEDP is the second water treatment plant that Keppel has developed under the DBOO arrangement.

The first, Keppel Seghers Ulu Pandan NEWater Plant, has a production capacity of 148,000 cu m per day. In 2017, Keppel Seghers completed its capacity upgrade to 162,800 cu m of NEWater daily. The plant's 20-year contract term with PUB ends in 2027.

Just last month, Keppel Corp announced that it is exiting the rig business and will pivot to clean energy. This will result in a leaner and greener entity better able to snag job wins amid a booming energy transition, be it offshore wind or solar farms, gas solutions or hydrogen energy.

As the first dual-mode desalination plant in Singapore, KMEDP is able to treat both reservoir and seawater into drinking water. At any one point in time, however, the plant can only treat either rainwater or seawater.

The usage of the plant to treat water from Marina Barrage or from the sea is dependent on weather conditions. In drier periods, for instance, seawater will be treated instead.

"The availability of desalination makes Singapore's water supply immensely resilient," said Ng Joo Hee, chief executive of PUB, adding that seawater desalination is a "practically limitless source" and is also weather-resistant.

Sitting on 2.8 hectares (ha) of land, the process equipment of the plant - which takes up 2.4 ha, reduces energy consumption by 12-15 per cent as compared to other typical desalination plants. This is thanks to the adoption of technology such as the direct coupling of the ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) systems.

This means that water filtered from the upstream UF process is fed directly to the downstream RO process, eliminating intermediate break tanks and pumping stages.

Keppel Infrastructure declined to reveal how much the project costs, due to commercial sensitivity concerns.