Singapore's Meranti Power has been commissioned to build, own and operate two new 340MW open-cycle gas turbine (OCGT) units on the city-state's Jurong island.
Meranti, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore's Energy Market Authority (EMA), has appointed a consortium of firms to develop the OCGTs that are expected to be operationally ready by June 2025, the EMA said on 19 May. They will use natural gas as the primary fuel but can also utilise diesel as a back-up fuel. They will also be able to take up to 30pc hydrogen and "with necessary enhancements, can harness up to 100pc hydrogen in the future", said the EMA.
Singapore already has existing on line reserves, or spare capacity, in combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) that are already generating electricity. But CCGTs have some technical limitations as they require up to 14 hours to reach full generation and cannot be started up quickly when other CCGTs face shutdowns, said the minister for manpower and second minister for trade and industry Tan See Leng at the groundbreaking ceremony for the turbines on 19 May. They are also unable to respond quickly to any changes in demand patterns. OCGT units can be brought on line quickly in less than 10 minutes to provide fast start generation capacity, in the event that there is any shortfall in generation capacity.
Peak demand can increase to 780MW during Singapore's hottest months of the year in May and July, a rise of 200MW from off-peak demand, according to Tan. It is more effective to start up OCGTs to cater to these surges in demand instead of starting up additional CCGTs, he added.
Fast start generation capacity is becoming increasingly important in "ensuring the security and reliability of our power system", the EMA said. Singapore's existing OCGTs are more than 30 years old require replacement. Meranti was commissioned to build the two new OCGTs to replace retiring capacity "as there is no commercial interest from the private sector to build new OCGTs", the EMA said.
About 95pc of Singapore's electricity is currently produced from natural gas. But the country has plans to import up to 4GW, or 30pc, of its electricity from low-carbon sources by 2035 to decarbonise its power sector. Singaporean energy firm Keppel Energy in March received the first ever conditional approval awarded by the EMA to import 1GW of electricity from Cambodia. These electricity imports are expected to start after 2030 and Keppel has proposed that the imported electricity will harness solar, hydro and potentially wind power in Cambodia.
