City Energy, Singapore’s sole provider and retailer of piped town gas for 160 years, and Senoko Energy, one of Singapore’s largest and most established energy companies, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly study the technical and commercial feasibility of import and supply of hydrogen between City Energy and Senoko Energy’s facilities in the northern part of Singapore.
City Energy and Senoko Energy will also explore other hydrogen-related opportunities, including green hydrogen, to meet the future demand for hydrogen power in Singapore.
Mr. Perry Ong, Chief Executive Officer of City Energy, said: “We are excited to partner with Senoko Energy to study ways to develop an efficient and reliable hydrogen supply chain into Senoko. This MoU represents a significant step forward in our mission to provide clean and sustainable energy to households and businesses for generations to come and supports Singapore’s National Hydrogen Strategy announced in October 2022 as a key decarbonisation pathway undergirding Singapore’s international climate commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.”
Mr. Eric Maka, President & CEO of Senoko Energy, said: “At Senoko Energy, promoting clean energy and energy efficiency is an ongoing endeavor. We are always looking at how we can play our part in supporting the transition to low carbon alternatives along with the production of cleaner and greener energy, all in tandem with Singapore’s Green Plan.
“We look forward to working with City Energy as the onboarding of hydrogen related technologies is very important for Singapore, which has a limited local supply of clean energy. Through our collective efforts and through the harnessing of both companies’ strengths and expertise, we hope to accelerate the adoption of hydrogen power and to help create a more sustainable future for all.”
Mr. Ralph Foong, Deputy Chief Executive (Energy Planning and Development), of the Energy Market Authority, said: “Collaboration between stakeholders to explore new solutions that can reduce carbon emissions in our power system is crucial in Singapore’s journey to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, while ensuring energy security. We are encouraged to see City Energy and Senoko Energy making this proactive effort to jointly explore opportunities with hydrogen. We look forward to the success of this initiative and to see how hydrogen can be optimised to accelerate Singapore’s energy transition.”
This MoU follows City Energy’s latest MoU on hydrogen feasibility studies with Gentari, the renewable energy arm of PETRONAS Malaysia; where both companies announced on 18 April 2023 to jointly conduct feasibility studies of a hydrogen supply chain from Malaysia to Singapore.
In addition, City Energy is collaborating with institutes of higher learning to explore alternative sources of hydrogen to support Singapore’s transition towards net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Last year, it joined leading industry partners to support Nanyang Technological University in its efforts to develop technologies for the extraction of hydrogen from liquid organic hydrogen carriers.
In 2020, Senoko Energy significantly stepped up its sustainability efforts with the launch of SolarShare, a pilot project to introduce peer-to-peer (P2P) trading of renewable energy.
SolarShare was driven by two key factors – Senoko Energy’s commitment to meet Singapore’s renewable energy demand and to empower Singaporeans with greater choices in their electricity consumption.
In 2021, Senoko Energy was awarded the National Environment Agency’s Energy Efficiency National Partnership Award for its gas turbine upgrade in two of its combined cycle plants. Through the successful upgrade of its gas turbines using advanced technologies, Senoko Energy improved the thermal efficiency of its combined cycle plants, resulting in about 15,000 tonnes of reduction in carbon emissions annually. This is equivalent to taking more than 4,500 cars off the road a year.
Senoko Energy has also indicated its interest to participate in EMA’s Request for Proposal to import energy. This is in support of Regional Grid, one of Singapore’s four switches that allows access to regional green energy sources that are otherwise limited or not available in land-scarce Singapore. Tapping such green energy sources also serves to accelerate the development of renewable energies in the region.