Singapore to diversify energy sources, consider nuclear power

Uma Shankari, Business Times 2 Feb 10;

SINGAPORE needs to diversify its energy sources over the next decade - and even consider nuclear power - as it will face energy constraints while growing, said the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) yesterday.

The committee, helmed by Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, said that Singapore must become resilient, sustainable and innovative in its energy use. This will include studying the feasibility of nuclear energy, he pointed out. 'As a small, resource-constrained country, we have to ensure that energy does not become a limiting barrier for Singapore's economic competitiveness and growth,' said the ESC report. 'We also have to play our part in reducing carbon emissions as a responsible member of the global community.'

Singapore needs to find a balance between economic competitiveness and environmental sustainability and, at the same time, ensure that its energy supply is secure, said S Iswaran, Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Trade and Industry. He co-chaired the sub-committee tasked with looking at Singapore's energy resilience and sustainable growth.

The ESC said that Singapore should diversify its energy sources. In the medium term, Singapore should explore coal and electricity imports to diversify both fuel types as well as source countries. 'The import of electricity is an option which can free up valuable land in Singapore,' said the report. 'It could also allow us to tap on the significant renewable energy potential in our region, such as in the form of hydro-electricity or geothermal power.'

For the long term, Singapore should support innovation and investment in renewable energy and study the feasibility of nuclear energy, the report added. 'Advances in nuclear technology will make it much safer than earlier designs, and we should carefully study its viability for a small city-state like Singapore.'

Early investment in critical energy infrastructure was also called for. Singapore should also step up measures to promote energy efficiency for buildings, industry and in homes and support low-carbon solutions in transportation, the report said.

It also called for energy to be priced to reflect its total cost - taking into account various externalities and constraints such as energy security and environmental sustainability.

Industry players should welcome the diversification of energy sources, said Jen Kwong Hwa, managing director of Micron Semiconductor Asia. He was also the co-chair of the sub-committee together with Mr Iswaran.

Mr Jen also said that competition could potentially drive down the cost of energy. And while prices could go up if the government prices energy to reflect its total cost, this should not affect businesses, Mr Jen added. This is because Singapore is likely to only adopt such a measure if there is a global agreement in place. 'What businesses look for is a level playing field,' Mr Jen noted. 'If everyone in the world is asked to pay for externalities, then our costs will not be high compared to them.'

Singapore 'should consider nuclear energy'
Grace Chua, Straits Times 2 Feb 10;

SINGAPORE should consider nuclear energy in the long term as a way of meeting its energy needs.

That radical idea has come from the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC), which has suggested various ways to reduce the economy's reliance on oil and gas.

In the short to medium term, the committee has suggested that Singapore look into generating energy from coal and even importing electricity from neighbouring countries.

But in the long term, the feasibility of nuclear energy should be examined.

'Advances in nuclear technology will make it much safer than earlier designs, and we should carefully study its viability for a small city-state like Singapore,' said the committee's report.

Expanding on this at a press conference yesterday, Mr S. Iswaran, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Education, said there is a need to consider alternative fuels because global energy markets are getting tighter, especially for traditional fossil fuels.

'That, together with economic cycles, means that we are looking at energy prices that are volatile and most probably on an upward long-term trend,' he said.

'The recommendation is basically that Singapore should start to study this seriously because we need to understand the context, the safety requirements, implications and other dimensions of this with a view to a long-term possibility.'

Climate change has made low carbon emission energy sources like nuclear power more attractive around the world.

But the ESC's suggestion still created a buzz here, where experts have previously raised concerns about Singapore's small physical size.

Siting a nuclear plant would be problematic as nuclear reactors need to be ringed with a buffer zone for safety.

Assistant Professor T.S. Gopi Rethinaraj of the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy said that even though nuclear power today is safe, it still generates radioactive waste.

'Singapore would need to get a larger country to take back the fuel,' he said.

But countries such as the United States and India are looking into the less-hazardous thorium as a nuclear fuel, reported Wired Magazine's January issue. But the technology required for thorium is more expensive than that for uranium, Dr Rethinaraj noted.

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) economics researcher Chang Youngho warned that the high capital cost of a nuclear reactor also means nuclear power would cost more to produce - about 10 cents to 15 cents per kilowatt hour compared to 5 cents to 6 cents for coal or oil.

Currently, Singapore generates its own electricity, more than 80 per cent of which comes from natural gas piped from Indonesia and Malaysia. Other sources such as fuel oil, diesel and waste incineration make up the remainder.

Importing coal is one diversification option, said the report. Last November, power company Tuas Power began building a $2 billion coal and biomass power plant on Jurong Island.

Coal could be imported from Indonesia and Australia, said NTU's Dr Chang.

But Singapore would have to study if coal was feasible, where to site a coal-fired plant and what sort of plant it should be. Pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide would also have to be controlled, he said.

The other option of importing electricity could mean tapping the region's renewable energy capacity, such as geothermal power from countries like Indonesia or hydroelectric power from the Mekong region.

Such plans are already on the cards: Since 1992, the South-East Asian nations of Asean have been planning a regional power grid project to share electricity, and Singapore and Malaysia already have a shared electricity power line for times of emergency.

But this has taken a long time because of the region's fragmented politics and lack of infrastructure, said NUS' Dr Rethinaraj.

'Singapore would have to invest in that infrastructure knowing there could be uncertainties,' he said.

Adjust energy prices to show true costs
Straits Times 2 Feb 10;

ENERGY prices need to be adjusted to reflect their true costs and constraints, said the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) report yesterday.

These costs, such as carbon emissions and energy security, will result in higher energy prices. But higher prices could promote the use of and investment in low-carbon solutions, noted the committee's report.

On the flip side, Singapore should also step up measures - such as energy audits and smart grids - to increase energy efficiency and help households and companies conserve energy.

'The Government should study how best to implement a carbon pricing scheme in anticipation of future carbon constraints, should there be a global agreement on climate change,' the report said.

Carbon pricing, it added, should be calibrated and introduced gradually, with help for low-income households to offset the costs.

If a legally binding climate deal had been made at the Copenhagen summit last year, developed countries would likely be subject to restrictions on emissions. Putting a price on carbon emissions is one way of helping countries meet these restrictions.

In fact, some European states such as Finland, Denmark and Sweden already have carbon taxes, while the European Union also has its own emissions trading scheme.

Singapore has said it would cut emissions by up to 11 per cent by 2020, and will commit to a 16 per cent cut when a legally binding global agreement is reached.

So pricing energy correctly - to reflect the carbon emissions generated from burning and extracting fuels - would be an incentive for companies and households to be more energy-efficient.

Dr Chang Youngho, assistant professor of economics at the Nanyang Technological University and an adjunct senior fellow at the National University of Singapore's Energy Studies Institute, said a carbon price of say $42 a tonne would raise the price of electricity by about 2 cents per kilowatt hour if the electricity was generated using natural gas.

'If you impose a carbon tax, it needs to be revenue-neutral - to be returned to the consumer in some way,' he said.

For instance, he suggested, the revenue from a carbon tax could be invested in developing energy efficiency or recycling schemes.

Already, Singapore is investing in energy efficiency and other sustainable development schemes.

It has committed $100 million since April last year to improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings, $43 million to implement cycling infrastructure in some HDB towns, and $31 million to test-bed solar technology.

In the ESC's report, two strategies were suggested: promoting energy efficiency for buildings, companies and homes through schemes such as energy audits; and using low-carbon public and private transportation.

For example, electric and hybrid cars and those using compressed natural gas are already eligible for a green vehicle rebate of 40 per cent of their open market value till December 2011.

GRACE CHUA

Singapore government studying possibility of adopting nuclear energy in future
Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia 1 Feb 10;

SINGAPORE: The Singapore government is not ruling out the nuclear energy option as a way to diversify its energy sources beyond oil and gas.

Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industy, S Iswaran, said Singapore needs to study the requirements needed for nuclear energy and whether they are feasible in the country's context.

He added that other economies are also moving in this direction.

Other alternatives suggested by the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) include importing electricity and coal in the medium term, and setting price incentives to increase energy efficiency.

- CNA/ir

Powering up to a smart energy economy
Esther Ng, Today Online 2 Feb 10;

SINGAPORE - Businesses and consumers could pay more for energy if the recommendation to price energy to reflect its "total cost" is adopted by the Government.

This is just one of the recommendations by the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC), which asked for "various externalities such as energy security and environmental sustainability" to be factored into cost pricing.

"Appropriate price signals could both promote the use of, as well as encourage investments in, energy-efficient and low-carbon solutions," it said.

The aim: To achieve a smart energy economy for Singapore, both to ensure that energy does not become a limiting barrier for competitiveness and to have the Republic play its part in reducing carbon emissions "as a responsible member of the global community".

When contacted, businesses MediaCorp spoke to were seemingly unfazed by a possible price increase.

"It's nothing new, the prices of raw materials and oil have been going up over years," said Mr Sunny Koh, managing director of Chinatown Food Corporation, a frozen food products company.

"There's nothing much you can do if you're a retail consumer," said Mr Ong Teck Soon, chief executive of Abecha and Sesami Singapore. The small IT company's annual electricity bill is some $6,000 to $7,000, mainly from its two data centres.

However, energy-efficiency consultant, Dr Lal Jayamaha of LJ Energy, believes the price signals will encourage companies to invest in energy efficient solutions.

"They stand to benefit from such investments in terms of higher savings especially if the energy cost is high," he said.

Mr Koh, who is also deputy chairman of the Singapore Packaging Agreement, agreed: "Reducing packaging means less cost in logistics, warehousing and freighting, all this will help reduce the energy bill."

Dr Jayamaha said there should be fiscal incentives - in the form of "lower tariffs" - to reward companies and individuals who are energy-efficient.

Besides pricing, a medium term goal should to diversify energy sources, said the committee, which recommended that Singapore explore coal and electricity imports. "The import of electricity is an option which can free up valuable land in Singapore," said the ESC. This would allow Singapore to tap on the significant renewable energy potential in the region, such as hydro-electricity or geothermal power.

On this, Dr Jayamaha said he expects the cost of doing so to be "similar to what we're paying for now".

While the cost of electricity from a hydro-plant in the region could be low, the infrastructure of importing electricity - laying cables - is high, he said.

The jury is still out whether clean coal technologies is as energy efficient as it claims to be, he added.

Other recommendations include: Establishing Intelligent Energy Systems for retailers and households to make informed choices on their electricity consumption; investing in a liquefied natural gas terminal, which will not only allow Singapore to gain access to global gas markets, but also reduce the cost of electricity; and developing Jurong Island as an energy-optimised industrial cluster.

This includes recycling waste heat from industry to desalinate sea water, and using the desalinated water for cooling industrial processes.




Nuclear energy an option?
Today Online 2 Feb 10;

In Singapore's bid to diversify its energy sources, going nuclear is a feasibility that should be studied, said the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC).

Calling it a "possible option" to meet "baseload electricity demand, as well as energy security imperatives", the ESC said advances in nuclear technology are also "making it much safer than earlier designs".

Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, Mr S Iswaran, noted that there are "significant developments in the sector itself, whether it's design or the plants, the modularity of plants ... the safety footprint ... (and) the type of fuels being used". Adding that other economies are also moving in this direction, Mr Iswaran said there are "good reasons" why Singapore shouldn't rule it out. In fact, he said Singapore should be "proactive in understanding what it entails and what capabilities are required, and at the same time, whether it is suitable in our context". Currently in Asia, only China, Japan, South Korea and India have nuclear reactors in operation. Esther Ng