Energy Studies

Background

Energy Consumption in Singapore

The development, generation, sales and all other services relating to electricity supply in Singapore is managed and controlled by the Public Utilities Board of Singapore (PUB). Electricity is generated at 4 power stations at Senoko, Jurong, Pasir Panjang and Pulau Seraya. The total installed generating capacity as at 1993 is 4,513 megawatts. This compared with the 1993 sales figure of 17,194.1 million kWh shows an excess generating capacity.

The 1993 sales of electricity represents a 7.8% growth in demand compared to 1992. The growth however is supported by a real expansion of demand base. This is verified, as shown in Figure 1, by the national economic data to give cumulative growth in percent from 1991 to 1993, In the case of new building space completed in terms of gross floor area in square meter, the 1991 data was normalised to give a 6.7% growth of that of 1990. The results for this group of data are therefore valid as a trend indicator only.

Figure 1 shows similar trend of growth for electricity demand, economic growth in terms of real growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and growth in completed new building space. In particular, the cumulative growth figures of GDP and electricity demand is very close, showing the importance of energy as a major element of economic activities. At the same time the closeness of the two groups of data also show that there was a real expansion of demand base rather than mere wastage. The data on new building space completion too agree very closely with the general trend. This group of data fluctuates slightly as it is influenced significantly by the completion of major developments. The consistent trend over the four years is an important indication that the energy consumption pattern in Singapore has stabilized and matured. With this condition, energy auditing can yield meaningful results and lead to real saving.

Fig. 1: Trends of cumulative growth in energy demand, GDP and new building space completed

Distribution of Energy Demand

The distribution of energy demand among the various sectors is as shown in Figure 2. The ‘domestic’ sector consumed the least energy, 18% of the total energy used in 1993. ‘Manufacturing’ is the largest sector consuming 45% of the total energy sold in 1993. 1992’s data have been plotted for comparison. It can be seen that the pattern of distribution is identical between 1992 and 1993, showing the stable demand of the various sectors and the economy as a whole.