S'pore industry won't be caught in the dark: EMA

S'pore industry won't be caught in the dark: EMA

Dow Jones, Singapore

Singapore is well prepared to tackle domestic power problems and is continuing to update its industry regulations to prevent blackouts like those that have recently hit other nations, Khoo Chin Hean, chief executive of Singapore's Energy Market Authority, said on Monday.

Singapore last faced a power blackout in August 2002 when the natural gas supply from Indonesia was disrupted. That blackout lasted about an hour and half and Khoo said the incident was due to the lack of a clear contingency plan.

"The staff at the plants know what to do, but they didn't react promptly when the gas pressure started falling," he said.

Now, power plant operators are instructed to switch the feedstock for the power units to fuel oil once the gas pressure falls, Khoo said.

"At the first sign of falling gas pressure, they are to switch to fuel oil...Ask the questions later."

Millions of Italians awoke on Sunday without power after the most recent in a series of large-scale blackouts that has called into question the integrity of electricity supplies in much of the industrialized world.

It also follows major blackouts recently in London, Denmark and Sweden and a massive blackout that darkened a large swath of the U.S. and Canada.

Most of Italy's 57 million people were affected by the outage, topping the 50 million left in the dark by the U.S.-Canadian blackout.

To prepare such extreme situations, Singapore's local power plants have been instructed to carry out dry runs of their power blackout emergency plans at least once a year, Khoo said.

The EMA, Singapore's power industry regulator, is considering introducing an independent audit system of individual power plants once every year or every two years, he said.

Additionally, the EMA is looking into the possibility of reserve power procurement in the electricity market.

"We have to first find out when and how to do it," Khoo said.

The reserve procurement plan would involve existing power producers increasing capacity or enticing new players to enter the market, he said.

However, Singapore, which is currently maintaining a comfortable 30 percent reserve capacity, has no immediate plan to procure reserve capacity, Khoo said.

"We're looking into the long-term plans as demand rises in the future," he said.