Singapore to build its first district-level smart grid

With Singapore’s largest district-level smart grid and solar panels, the Punggol Digital District (PDD) is targeting to reduce up to 1,700 tonnes of carbon emissions and generate 3,000 megawatt-hours of clean energy annually, which will be able to power 11,000 three-room HDB (public housing) flats in the country.

Currently in the design phase, PDD’s smart grid is expected to be completed in 2026.

It is being jointly developed by JTC, the lead agency for industrial infrastructure development, the Energy Market Authority (EMA), and the Public Sector Science & Technology Policy & Plans Office (S&TPPO) under the Prime Minister’s Office.

Last week, JTC announced that it has appointed a Singapore-based consortium involving global decarbonisation firm, Univers, and local power generator and retailer, PacificLight Power, to design, build and operate the smart grid.

To subscribe to the GovInsider bulletin click here. 

Tackling Singapore’s renewable energy woes

A big challenge for Singapore to efficiently tap on solar energy is that sunlight fluctuations make it an unstable source of energy supply – in other words, what happens when the sun does not shine?

The new smart grid will integrate the solar panels with a battery energy storage system (BESS) to store excess energy and regulate energy use throughout the day, enabling a stable supply of energy even when the sun is not shining.

As the smart grid enables real-time data management while the BESS captures and stores renewable energy, both components enable the PDD to adjust to changes in energy use during peak and non-peak periods.

The smart grid will be integrated with JTC’s Open Digital Platform, a one-stop platform for district management operations.

ODP enables the smart grid to interact with other systems in the district, including EV chargers, district cooling system and the building management system – making it easier for businesses in PDD to adopt renewable energy.

“Distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar panels, district cooling and EV chargers have the potential to play a broader range of roles in our energy system, especially as our renewable energy penetration increases.

Coordinating these resources and their underlying operations is challenging but presents immense opportunities,” said EMA’s Assistant Chief Executive, Markets and Systems Division, Low Xin Wei.

Cost savings and integration with national grid

“JTC and PDD tenants can look forward to enjoying reduced cost of renewable electricity supply while leveraging onsite renewables energy generation,” said JTC’s New Estates, Group Director, Nelson Liew. 

JTC also underlined the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in energy modeling and simulation to “push the boundaries for further energy savings of up to 20 per cent.”

Another key initiative to enabling cost savings is integrating the smart grid with EMA’s demand response programme launched in 2016.

Under this initiative, consumers can voluntarily shift their electricity usage from peak to off-peak periods, and receive an incentive payment for doing so.

The Business Times reported that PDD is also looking at the smart grid to support Singapore’s national grid.

PacificLight’s senior manager of business development, Jonathan Tai, shared that within PDD, the firm is testing a system to supply energy directly to the national grid when energy prices spike.

JTC highlighted in its press release that the combination of “support from relevant authorities” and successful trials could enable PDD’s smart grid model to be scaled to other districts and interact with neighboring developments.

While smart grids are not new in Singapore, The Straits Times reported that “no one here has built a district-level smart grid like the PDD with multiple tenants and users.”

To subscribe to the GovInsider bulletin click here.  

Smart grid as a test bedding platform

JTC, EMA and S&TPPO will set up a living lab that enables companies to test digital technology innovations on the smart grid in an operational business park setting.

The innovations will be focused on enhanced urban living and environmental sustainability.

Some of the testbeds in this lab would include a trial of the underground deployment of the BESS with appropriate fire safety measures in a real-world urban environment to understand safety risk, vehicle-to-grid demonstrations, and building solar panels together with commercial urban farming on tower rooftops.

“This [living lab] initiative will open doors to new business models that will benefit both consumers and the energy ecosystem.

“By using digital twins, and modelling and simulation techniques, we can optimise investments, improve efficiencies and resilience, and maximise resource savings, all while reducing implementation risks,” said S&TPPO’s Group Chief Systems Officer, Pang Chung Khiang.

EMA recently set up a regulatory sandbox to explore the feasibility of virtual power plants. One of the test beds at PDD will explore participation in this sandbox and develop the smart grid digital platform as an enabling infrastructure for virtual power plants.

A virtual power plant is a digital platform that bundles small-scale energy systems to operate as a single power generator.