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

Walking the talk – on ‘green’ tyres [News]

By Ronnie Lim, The Business Times, 28 Sep 2011.

Today’s economic weather forecast, going by most market watchers, is for more dark clouds, with storms looming on the horizon. Given this grim outlook, international conferences, such as the recent Rubber Day held by Germany’s Lanxess in Dusseldorf last week, provide useful insights on how multinationals batten down the hatches for approaching foul weather.

The German chemicals group, with over S$1 billion committed to two synthetic rubber plant investments in Singapore, is after all a significant player and useful barometer for the petrochemicals industry here.

Not too far back, in 2009 amid the global financial crisis, it was, for instance, forced to delay the groundbreaking of its first investment here, a 400 million euro (S$696 million) butyl rubber plant, and did so only a year later in May 2010 when the global market for synthetic rubber rebounded. 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

Sembcorp Drives First Pile for its Largest Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant on Jurong Island [Press Releases]

Singapore, July 4, 2011 – Sembcorp is pleased to announce that the company has achieved a significant milestone in its expansion into the new growth area of Jurong Island, with the first pile of the Sembcorp integrated wastewater treatment plant at Banyan being driven into the ground today.

Expected to commence operations in the second half of 2012, the 9,600 cubic metres per day industrial wastewater treatment plant capable of treating multiple streams of complex industrial wastewater, will more than double Sembcorp’s current industrial wastewater treatment hydraulic capacity on the island. The facility will be able to treat industrial wastewater with concentration of up to 800 milligrammes per litre chemical oxygen demand (COD), which is approximately twice more concentrated than municipal wastewater. With an investment cost of approximately S$40 million through internal funding, the facility will serve industrial customers including LANXESS and Jurong Aromatics Corporation (JAC), in the Banyan, Tembusu and Angsana districts of Jurong Island. Read more

Coal gasification could be a future feedstock option in Singapore [News]

Singapore is literally leaving no stone unturned in its search for additional strategic feedstocks for the oil refining/petrochemicals industry on Jurong Island.

It is now looking at coal-to-chemicals as another option, and wants to evaluate having a coal gasification plant there to provide syngas feedstocks for chemical plants and utilities such as steam and power.

This latest study by the Economic Development Board – in cooperation with the Energy Market Authority and JTC Corporation – adds to two ongoing feedstock studies looking into the import of LPG or liquefied petroleum gas, and also the use of ‘green’ feedstock, such as palm oil, sugarcane and plant biomass.

So far, the petrochemical crackers here – operated by Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore, Shell and ExxonMobil – use mainly naphtha, and more recently heavy ‘bottoms’ such as hydrowax from the refineries to produce the feedstock needed by downstream chemical plants. It is understood that more optimal use of such ‘bottoms’ is also being looked into. Read more

Sembcorp plant to go full steam on biomass [News]

A steam plant on Jurong Island powered by waste wood chips is set to be one of the first here to run wholly on plant material known as biomass.

The Sembcorp Industries plant, which will burn about 120 tonnes of wood chips a day, will supply process steam to other companies on the island. It will be ready in the second half of this year, a source familiar with the company’s plans said.

Just where the wood chips will come from is not clear, but an upcoming power plant on Jurong Island, built by Tuas Power and China Huaneng Group – expected to be ready next year – will run partly on palm kernel shells and wood chips sourced from neighbouring countries. Read more

Sembcorp to Build $900m Cogen Plant [News]

Sembcorp will start building a $900 million second cogeneration plant here to provide multi-utilities, including power and steam, to petrochemical investors on Jurong Island in the second half of this year.

The first phase of the project is slated to begin operations by the second half of 2013.

This follows its signing of an engineering, procurement, and construction contract last week with Alstom Power for the facility, which will be able to provide a total 800 megawatts of power and 400 tonnes per hour of steam when fully commissioned.

The combined cycle gas turbine cogen plant will be fuelled by piped natural gas from Indonesia as well as liquefied natural gas (LNG) for which Sembcorp has signed a long-term supply deal with Singapore’s LNG aggregator, BG Group. 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