Grid expansion spending to rise 11-fold under EMA plan

It aims to meet a peak demand of 9.9 to 13 gigawatts by 2031.

The Energy Market Authority (EMA) released its five-year Energy Infrastructure Plan to meet demand growth, with Singapore projected to spend up to $5.3b for power grid expansion between 2025 and 2029, 11 times its previous investments in five years.

The plan outlines Singapore’s upcoming energy infrastructure developments to meet its electricity demands from energy-intensive sectors such as semiconductor manufacturing and data centres.

According to EMA, August peak electricity demand was 8.6 gigawatts (GW), and is projected to reach between 9.9 GW and 13 GW by 2031.

The $5b investment will fund seven new transmission substations by 2031, transmission cable network expansion by 2030 and the strengthening of the local distribution network.

Singapore is also studying the feasibility of more than tripling the length of its cable tunnels, from about 50 kilometres (km) today and plans to increase solar capacity to 3 gigawatts-peak (GWp) by 2030 and to 4 GWp by 2035.

The country will begin to operate five new natural gas-fired power plants between 2026 and 2031 to push electricity generation capacity by around 26% from the current 12 GW today.

EMA is also currently evaluating proposals from the Request for Proposal (RFP) for additional natural gas plants to be operational by 2032.

Singapore is also researching the possible establishment of a new energy cluster at Pulau Tekong, where low-carbon energy technologies would be explored and integrated.

When the second liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Jurong Port starts operating by 2030, Singapore will have increased its LNG regasification capacity to 15 million tonnes per annum(Mtpa) from 10 Mtpa.

The country will also be increasing its energy storage capacity from around 350 megawatt-hours (MWh) to over one gigawatt-hour (GWh) by 2030.

To strengthen the flow of low-carbon electricity imports, Singapore will be progressively developing sufficient electricity import landing sites to connect subsea cables to its power grid.

A second electricity interconnection between Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia is currently being studied, expected to support up to 2 GW of capacity by 2030.

Singapore will continue monitoring electricity demand to further improve its infrastructure plans based on evolving needs and ensure that its power system remains reliable and resilient as demand grows.

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