PowerSeraya plans to spend $80m
to repower Jurong plant
The Straits Times, 12 December 2003
By: AZHAR KHALID
POWERSERAYA, Singapore's No. 2 power-generating company, is considering a plan to spend about $80 million to revamp its decommissioned Jurong power plant in a bid to achieve greater flexibility and efficiency.
This would be done by converting four oil-fired generators that have been mothballed since 2001 into a hybrid system that can use gas, oil and orimulsion - a bitumen-based fuel.
The new single generator would be built by combining these four generators, which used to produce 60MW of electricity each, with two gas-fired turbine generators, capable of producing 105MW each.
When completed, the hybrid combined-cycle generator would be able to produce up to 40OMW of electricity. And it would be flexible enough to generate electricity using gas, oil and orimulsion.
The critical advantage of this is that PowerSeraya will not be dependent on a single resource and will be well placed to ensure a continuous supply of electricity at competitive prices.
Last month, PowerSeraya and two other power-generation companies had to switch to diesel fuel to run their generators when there was a gas outage because of a leak in a natural gas pipeline from Indonesia to Singapore .
PowerSeraya's incoming managing director, Mr. Neil McGregor, said the repowering of the Jurong plant would "help keep our cost down trough better efficiency and innovative ways to get more from what we have".
The old steam generators are less efficient because they use diesel oil to heat up water which, in turn, generates steam that is used to run the turbines.
"The reconfigured generator will make us 30 per cent more efficient," said Mr. McGregor, who will take over the helm at PowerSeraya on Feb 1.
To implement the changes at the Jurong plant, PowerSeraya will shut down up to two of its 250MW steam power generators at Pulau Seraya to ensure that the company's overall licensed capacity of 3,100 MW will not be exceeded.
Mr. McGregor said he expected the feasibility study of the repowering project to be completed by the first quarter of next year. It would take less than a year to build the new generator.
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