A*STAR’s Experimental Power Grid Centre to spur R&D collaborations for future energy and smart grid solutions [Press Releases]

1. Singapore, 1 November 2011. The Experimental Power Grid Centre (EPGC), one of the largest experimental power grid facilities in the world was officially opened in Singapore, today, by Mr. S. Iswaran, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Home Affairs and Trade & Industry.

2. Located on Jurong Island, EPGC, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s (A*STAR’s) centre for energy research is established to support Singapore’s goal toward developing a smart energy economy. The facility will pave the way for cutting-edge research and research collaborations with local and international partners to develop future energy technologies in areas of electrical power networks and energy distribution and renewable energy resources, for eventual commercialisation. Read more

Tuas Power to proceed with Phase 2 of expansion plan [News]

By Ronnie Lim, The Business Times, 16 Aug 2011.

The turmoil in global markets notwithstanding, Tuas Power (TP) is set to proceed shortly with Phase 2 of its $2 billion clean coal/biomass multi-utilities expansion on Jurong Island.

‘We have secured enough customers for us to embark on Phase 2,’ TP’s president and chief executive Lim Kong Puay told BT yesterday.

He stressed that the project to supply utilities like power and steam to new petrochemical investors there ‘is a long-term investment’, and is not affected by the current turbulence.

TP is seeking the ‘go-ahead’ shortly from owner China Huaneng Group for the Phase 2 project, he added. Read more

The Use of Coal in Singapore

Here’s an update on the use of coal in Singapore:

Tuas Power’s coal plant

Read the chronology of the clean coal and biomass cogeneration plant by Tuas Power.

Tuas Power’s new coal and biomass plant at Jurong Island would start operations mid next year, and the company has signed a contract with Indonesia’s PT Bayan Resources to supply 13.36 million tonnes of sub-bituminous coal over the next 15 years from Kalimantan, and has also struck a deal with South Korea’s Samtam Co Ltd to supply coal. Tuas Power is also concluding a deal for the palm kernel, which makes up the 20% biomass component of the plant feedstock (the other 80% is coal).

If a calculation is done only for the coal supplied by PT Bayan Resources, and excluding the coal from Samtam Co Ltd and the palm biomass, the combustion of 13.36 million tonnes of sub-bituminous coal would emit about 24 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s calculation tool). Read more

A*STAR Musters a Line-up of Four Industry Players to Develop Future Energy Technologies

Groundbreaking of A*STAR’s Experimental Power Grid Centre (EPGC) on Jurong Island paves the way for cutting-edge R&D to develop Singapore as a ‘living laboratory’ for smart grid solutions

1. Four companies, namely, Rolls Royce, Vestas, SP PowerGrid and CEI Contract Manufacturing entered into strategic partnerships with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) today to develop smart grid and distributed energy solutions. This was announced at the groundbreaking ceremony of its smart grid research facility of the Experimental Power Grid Centre (EPGC) by Guest-of-Honour, Mr Ravi Menon, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade & Industry.

2. The technologies and solutions being jointly developed will form the key components to be integrated into the intelligent grid system. Said Mr. Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman, A*STAR: “Smart grid R&D is critical to transforming Singapore into a smart energy economy and EPGC is an important enabling infrastructure that will bring us a step closer to realising an intelligent national energy grid. With this infrastructure in place, Singapore will be well-positioned to take R&D in energy solutions to the next level.” Read more