Redevelopment of oil-fired plants to be completed in 2012
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 20 Nov 09;
(SINGAPORE) Singapore's largest generating company, Senoko Power, will start work on its deferred $750 million re-powering project in January, outgoing president and CEO Roy Adair said yesterday.
The move follows a recovery in electricity demand since mid-year when the economy started turning around, and the government's takeover of the delayed $1-1.5 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal project from which Senoko intends to obtain gas to fuel the re-powering project.
Next on the cards for the genco - in the longer term - will be spot trading of LNG here, Mr Adair's successor Brendan Wauters told BT.
Senoko - now owned by a French-Japanese consortium of LNG players - is discussing this with LNG terminal developer Singapore LNG Corporation, Mr Wauters said.
In a farewell interview, Mr Adair - who leaves Senoko this week after six years - said his return to Australia, where he intends to be involved with the power and environment industry, was something he had planned since March and was not, contrary to market speculation, anything hasty.
He said that while Senoko had deferred the re-powering project - which was supposed to start in April - it had continued with planning, even as monthly electricity demand plunged as much as 5-8 per cent in the first half.
The project involves re-developing of three 30-year-old oil-fired plants of 250 megawatts each into two, more efficient, combined cycle gas turbines of 430 MW each, and will make Senoko - already 97 per cent gas-fuelled - into one of the most environmentally friendly players here.
Senoko, which now buys about 230 million standard cubic ft of piped Malaysian and Indonesian gas daily, will need another 60 million once the re-powering project is completed in mid-2012.
To meet this requirement, Mr Wauters said Senoko has been in discussions with BG Group, the LNG aggregator, about securing long-term base supply. The genco is also talking to Singapore LNG Corporation, the terminal developer, about making additional LNG spot purchases for its own needs, and possibly for spot trading down the road.
The latter move is no surprise, given the Lion Power consortium - which bought Senoko for $4 billion in September last year - comprises consortium leaders Marubeni Corp and France's GDF-Suez, both of which are big LNG buyers and traders. Its other members, like Kansai Electric and Kyushu Electric, are LNG consumers.
Mr Adair said Senoko, which currently has a 28-29 per cent share of the electricity market here, 'doesn't expect a material drop in this during the re-powering'.
Mr Wauters said it is still early days on whether Senoko - the only station in the north - will bid for the new Lorong Halus power station site the government is offering in the north-east. At present, there is more than enough generating capacity to meet demand, he said.
