SINGAPORE: The Government will liberalise the gas market to allow open access and to support new entrants.
Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said this at the opening of the Asia Power Conference on Thursday.
He said that while governments cannot totally eliminate power failures, they can take measures to ensure the probability of failure stays low.
Liberalising the gas market will encourage more sources of gas supply into the energy system.
The resultant competitive pressures should also spur players to do better on both price and reliability.
Dr Vivian also revealed that a high-level committee, set up after last June's major power failure to review Singapore's electricity and gas systems, has completed its work and will be announcing its findings soon.
Meantime, the Energy Market Authority and the industry players have taken steps to enhance the reliability of the country's energy system.
Dr Vivian said the 29 June power failure has highlighted the question of whether Singapore is relying too much on one source of fuel to generate electricity, and whether it should diversify our fuel types and sources.
So one significant measure is for generation companies to be fed by gas from two sources.
He said two of the three major power stations are already supported by two sources of gas.
The third plans to have its second pipeline by the middle of this year.
Dr Vivian said the government is also reviewing what additional investment is needed to enhance the system.
It is currently studying the economics of having a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility over the longer term.
If the decision is to proceed, the target would be to have the LNG import terminal operational and ready to receive LNG by 2012.
Dr Vivian also said the government will continuously review and improve the contingency measures in place, while allowing the competitive energy market to drive production, consumption and investment decisions as far as possible. - CNA
Will domestic usage get to benefit?