Singapore draws 20 proposals on low-carbon electricity imports from region

SINGAPORE has received 20 proposals involving the import of low carbon electricity from solar, wind, hydro to geothermal power from 4 South-east Asian nations - Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand - following an initial request for proposal (RFP) by the energy regulator.

"There was a strong response to this RFP," said the Energy Market Authority's (EMA) director for energy connections office Lee Seng Wai in a statement. The initial RFP closed in mid-April this year.

Last November, the EMA issued the RFP to appoint electricity importers to import and sell around 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of low carbon electricity into Singapore - a plan which is expected to begin by 2027. This forms part of the city state's plans to import up to 4 GW of electricity by 2035 and by that timeline, would constitute around 30 per cent of Singapore’s electricity supply.

The deadline for the final bid submission is on Jun 14 following which EMA said it will evaluate the proposals and expect to announce the outcome in the final quarter of this year.

When asked for further details, Lee said EMA is unable to provide them now due to commercial sensitivities.

EMA has also been carrying out small-scale pilots with Asean counterparts for cross-border electricity trading in an effort to develop a regional power grid. "Regional power grids would benefit Singapore and the region in growing the renewable energy sector of source countries, powering the region’s transition towards cleaner energy adoption and ensuring greater energy security," said Lee.

One such collaboration is the Laos PDR-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project (LTMS-PIP), where Singapore will import 100 megawatts of electricity from Laos via Thailand and Malaysia using existing interconnections. The project stakeholders are targeting for the LTMS-PIP to commence in the middle of this year.

In a response to queries from The Business Times, Lee said: "Given the differences in the electricity market structures, systems and governance in the region, much effort has been focused on the harmonisation of technical, commercial, legal and regulatory aspects of the cross-border electricity trading for the LTMS-PIP. "

For example, to ensure stability of supply and effective emergency responsiveness, the 4 parties have developed a dedicated communications protocol that enables all parties to exchange timely information on electricity dispatch and system readiness for the wheeling of electrons across the 4 countries.

On what are the possible back-up plans being worked on in the event of electricity supply disruption involving energy imports, Lee replied: "Any outage of electricity imports may take time to resolve given the long distances involved and overseas generation sources."

Depending on the severity of the outage, he said, back-up plans such as the use of energy storage systems and local generators will have to be installed in Singapore to ensure supply reliability.

Singapore is banking on electricity imports as it embarks on the path to decarbonise and hit net-zero emissions by mid century. Decarbonising the power sector is a key part of Singapore’s green journey as the sector accounts for a sizeable share of the city state’s overall emissions.

An Energy 2050 Committee Report released in March recommended, among other things, for Singapore to prioritise importing renewable electricity and to ensure supply security, to develop a "diversified portfolio of import partners supported by a regional grid and trading platform as well as cost efficient backup options".