The first power plant by Singapore based company, PacificLight Power, that fully operates on liquefied natural gas (LNG) has begun operations, the company CEO Yu Tat Ming announced.
Reuters cited Ming as saying, “Traditionally, we only rely on piped natural gas coming from our neighbours, Malaysia and Indonesia […] whereas LNG is international so you can source it from every part of the world.” Thus it is a much more accessible form of fuel. PacificLight Power is a joint venture between Petronas Power (30%) and FPM Power (70%), which is owned by MGen and First Pacific.
The S$1.2bn ($955m) plant is located on Jurong Island, Singapore. Additionally, earlier, in 2014, Singapore announced its plans to construct a second LNG receiving terminal which will complement the first terminal which has a capacity of 9 million tonnes per year. The 800MW facility on Jurong Island is expected to be the largest LNG consumer in the state.
Currently, the company supplies electricity to industrial users only and is the sole aggregator of Singapore’s LNG. According to an Energy Market Authority (EMA) spokesperson the electricity demand for Singapore is likely to increase about 2-4% annually over the next few years. So, the new power plant comes at the right time to provide this extra energy.
