Singapore on track to import 4 GW of electricity by 2035

The country currently imports 200 MW of low-carbon power.

Singapore’s goal to import a low-carbon power of four gigawatts (GW) by 2035 is achievable as the Energy Market Authority (EMA) has conditionally approved 4.2 GW of import projects for seven companies.

In a report, Wood Mackenzie said Keppel Energy secured the largest capacity at 1.4 GW for renewables which include solar with a battery energy storage system and hydropower.

“However, it is noted that none of the projects have publicly announced that they have received firm Power Purchasing Agreements, and they will take many years to come online,” Lim Jia Liang, power analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said.

Large-scale solar and battery energy storage systems in Peninsular Malaysia, and hydropower from Sarawak will be the cheapest source of power import because of the lower transmission costs compared to other markets.

Other potential sources include wind with batteries in Vietnam and the Philippines but the additional transmission costs could be even higher than the spending for power plant development, making it “prohibitively expensive,” Marcus Chan, power analyst at Wood Mackenzie. 

Singapore is heavily reliant on gas, which accounts for over 90% of its power generation, due to the high-cost nature of the power market and land constraints, Robert Liew, director, APAC power and renewables research at Wood Mackenzie said.

Currently, it imports 200 megawatts of power, comprising only 1.5% of its total power capacity.