Singapore expands electricity system with Meranti’s hydrogen-ready power plant

At full capacity, the 682-megawatt facility on Jurong Island can power over a million four-room flats

The Energy Market Authority’s (EMA) wholly owned subsidiary, Meranti Power, has developed a power plant capable of coming online within 10 minutes.

This quick-response capability ensures grid reliability in the event of unexpected increases in demand, or when other power plants run into technical issues and have to be shut down, leading to a shortfall in energy supply.

The 682-megawatt facility, located on Jurong Island, was launched on Wednesday (Oct 29). It was delivered in 28 months by a consortium comprising Jurong Engineering and Mitsubishi Power Asia Pacific.

The new facility comprises two open-cycle gas turbine (OCGT) units that, at full capacity, can generate enough electricity to power over one million four-room HDB households.

Minister-in-charge of Energy and Science & Technology Tan See Leng said the OCGT units will “ensure our system has sufficient fast-start capacity, as part of our ongoing efforts to ensure energy security and system reliability”.

Currently, nearly all electricity in Singapore is generated by combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGTs), which are the most efficient thermal units available.

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Dr Tan noted, however, that CCGTs “cannot start up quickly during contingency events, such as when other units face technical issues and need to be urgently shut down”.

To address this, many power systems also rely on fast-start generation units, such as OGCTs, to complement CCGTs and prevent disruptions to supply.

OGCTs can come online and start supplying electricity in 10 minutes, reaching full capacity within 25 minutes. In contrast, CCGTs can take up to 14 hours to start from a cold state.

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EMA commissioned Meranti Power in June 2022 to build the new OCGTs to replace ageing fast-start power generation capacity.

The new turbines are more efficient than existing OCGTs in Singapore and can reduce Singapore’s carbon dioxide emissions by about 4,000 tonnes for every 50 hours of operation.

The turbines are also hydrogen-ready, capable of co-firing up to 30 per cent hydrogen.

Puah Kok Keong, chief executive of EMA, said that being hydrogen-ready means the OCGTs “support Singapore’s transition towards a more flexible and low-carbon energy system”.