Energy management important to Singapore's economic strategy: S Iswaran

In an interview with Channel NewsAsia, the Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) also talks about how Singapore's energy landscape has evolved.
Nicole Tan Channel NewsAsia 14 Oct 15;

SINGAPORE: Ahead of the upcoming Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW), Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) S Iswaran said energy management is an indispensable part of Singapore's economic strategy.

In an interview with Channel NewsAsia on Tuesday (Oct 13), he also talked about how Singapore's energy landscape had evolved in the last 50 years.

Mr Iswaran: The key change over the years has really been first ensuring greater resilience in our energy sector. This is really to ensure Singapore has got, as far as possible, diversified sources of energy, in order to ensure the resilience of energy supply to Singapore.

The second thing we've been focusing on is greater competition in the energy market, whether in terms of generation, retail, and sales to the end consumer, households or businesses alike. In this area, we've progressively been enhancing retail contestability, lowering the threshold and therefore allowing more consumers to have choices.

Ultimately, we want to move towards full retail contestability, which means every household and energy consumer will have a choice in terms of who they buy energy from and the kind of package, not unlike what you might do for telecoms. That’s something the Energy Market Authority (EMA) is working on, and I think we’ve been making good progress and we hope to do more in the coming years.

Q: Why is energy management so important for Singapore, given the context that we are a small country with no natural resources?

Mr Iswaran: If you take economic activity, energy is a key input. If you take wafer fabrication industry for example, the slightest disruption in energy supply will result in significant losses for them; even if it's just for a few minutes, it'll disrupt their operations and cause them significant losses.

So it's a key parameter when investors make their decisions, it's a key determinant of economic competitiveness and sustainability of economic competitiveness in the long term. That's one of the main reasons we emphasise energy policy, and in particular the resilience of our energy supply. As a small city-state relying almost entirely on imported energy, it's an indispensable part of our economic strategy.

Q: What are the Government's top priorities in the energy sector, particularly as Singapore functions as a major trading hub for commodities and energy?

Mr Iswaran: These are the three elements - economic competitiveness, energy security and environment sustainability, which we take into account when thinking through the issues and formulating our policies for the present, but also for the future in terms of energy for Singapore.

One of the areas we'll be focusing on is retail contestability, broadening the options for consumers and ensuring that there is a way for people to choose, whether it’s households or small businesses. Choice between suppliers of electricity - this is an important part of ensuring we have a vibrant electricity market and one that will continue to provide value and choice and quality service for consumers.

The other area is diversifying our sources. Beyond carbon-based sources, development of alternative energy sources is another aspect. We're quite limited, alternative energy disadvantaged, we have limited options, by virtue of size and built up environment. One area where there's been considerable work being done is the solar aspect, because we think it's an area where there is potential for solar energy to be an important part of the energy mix in Singapore.

Q: You have talked about how Singapore is a player in an international arena. What is the importance of international engagement?

Mr Iswaran: Energy policy to a considerable extent is domestic-focused. Every country has its own energy policy. We also need engagement across economies and across countries, because there are areas for collaboration which can reinforce each other’s strategy, and indeed a regional approach could yield significant benefits for all countries.

In ASEAN, there are discussions on a trans-ASEAN gas pipeline, which if it were to eventuate, even if in limited form, it means therefore there’s greater resilience in gas supply network within ASEAN, which will be to the benefit for member states. At the same time, Singapore also has established itself as a thought leader through our Government agencies and also range of international organisations and private sector organisations in the space of energy.

Thinking about issues pertaining to future of gas, future of alternative energy, policies that will facilitate evolution of alternative energy, as part of national energy mix - these are areas where our agencies and many other players in Singapore have been involved in. Singapore becomes a good platform and SIEW in particular is a forum where I've seen considerable discussion take place in that regard.

- CNA/xq