The Senoko Power Station is the largest
power station
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.
Many p ...
in Singapore. It is located in
Senoko,
Sembawang
Sembawang is a planning area and residential town located in the North Region of Singapore. Sembawang planning area is bordered by Simpang to the east, Mandai to the south, Yishun to the southeast, Woodlands to the west and the Straits of Joho ...
and was commissioned in 1976. It is owned by
Senoko Energy Pte Ltd, formerly known as Senoko Power Ltd.
Description
The Senoko Power Station is located at a former British Naval Base in
Sembawang
Sembawang is a planning area and residential town located in the North Region of Singapore. Sembawang planning area is bordered by Simpang to the east, Mandai to the south, Yishun to the southeast, Woodlands to the west and the Straits of Joho ...
,
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
.
The Steam Plant Stage I, which was completed in 1976, comprised three steam thermal plants with
120
MW of capacity each. The Steam Plant Stage II, which was completed in 1979, comprised three steam thermal plants with 250 MW of capacity each. The Steam Plant Stage III which was completed in 1983 comprises another two steam thermal plants with 250 MW of capacity each. In 1992, Stage III 250 MW boilers were modified with gas burners to enable it to fire both Natural Gas and Fuel Oil.
In the 1990s, it was converted from a
gas turbine power plant
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...
to a
combined cycle plant
A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas tu ...
.
The combined cycle plants include combined cycle plants 1 and 2, combined cycle plants 3 to 5 and combined cycle plants 6 and 7. The Gas Plant Stage I was an open cycle plant with 4 open cycle gas turbines with 131 MW capacity when commissioned in 1991. In 1994, the 4 open cycle gas turbines were converted into two blocks of combined cycle plants with 425 MW of capacity each and renamed CCP 1 and 2. In 2010, Gas Turbine GT22 of CCP 2 was upgraded with new vanes and blades for its stage 1 and 2
The combined cycle plants 3 to 5 were completed and fully operational by 2004 with 365 MW of capacity each, which involved the repowering of the Stage I oil-fired steam thermal plant. The combined cycle plants 6 and 7 were completed and commissioned by 2012 with 431 MW of capacity each, which involved the repowering of the Stage II oil-fired steam thermal plant.
In its early years, the plant used crude oil as fuel to power its turbines; however, this was replaced by natural gas piped from
Terengganu
Terengganu (; Terengganu Malay: ''Tranung'', Jawi: ), formerly spelled Trengganu or Tringganu, is a sultanate and constitutive state of federal Malaysia. The state is also known by its Arabic honorific, ''Dāru l- Īmān'' ("Abode of Faith" ...
on the east coast of
Peninsular Malaysia
Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...
after 1992. Oil, however, is still used as a back-up.
History
The Senoko Power Station originally began operations in 1976. It was built by
PUB
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
with plans starting as early as 1971.
Two additional stages of construction were conducted with it being officially completed in 1983 as Singapore's largest power station.
In the 1990s, the Senoko Power Station was converted from an open-cycle
gas turbine power plant
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...
to Singapore's first
combined cycle plant
A combined cycle power plant is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem from the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy. On land, when used to make electricity the most common type is called a combined cycle gas tu ...
.
In 1992, a fire broke out at one of its plants resulting in a major power outage in the island.
Based on a mutual agreement between Malaysia and Singapore on electricity, the plant is linked by a submarine cable to the
Sultan Iskandar Power Station in
Pasir Gudang
Pasir Gudang is a city in Johor Bahru District, Johor, Malaysia. The main industries are transportation and logistics, shipbuilding, petrochemicals and other heavy industries, and oil palm storage and distribution, which is located in Johor ...
, Johor. In the event of a power outage in Peninsular Malaysia, the plant would supply electricity to the Johor plant. Likewise, if there is a power outage in Singapore, the Johor plant would supply electricity to Senoko.
The plant's only standing concrete chimney which belongs to Stage 3, at 182 metres high, is the tallest structure in the northern part of Singapore and one of the tallest structures on the island. It is clearly visible across the
Tebrau Straits
The Johore Strait (also known as the Tebrau Strait, Straits of Johor, Selat Johor, Selat Tebrau, and Tebrau Reach) is an international strait in Southeast Asia, between Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia.
Geography
The strait separates the M ...
and in most parts of
Johor Bahru. The plant's second chimney which belongs to Stage 2 was demolished in July 2010 as part of the repowering process.
On 5 September 2008,
Temasek Holdings
Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, or simply Temasek, is a Singaporean state holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek owns and manages a total of US$496.59 billion (S$671 billion) in assets u ...
sold Senoko Energy Pte Ltd to
Lion Power Holdings for
S$3.65 billion. Lion Power is owned by a consortium led by Japan's
Marubeni Corporation
(, OSE: 8002, NSE: 8002) is a '' sōgō shōsha'' (general trading company) headquartered in Nihonbashi, Chuo, Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the largest ''sogo shosha'' and has leading market shares in cereal and paper pulp trading as well as a ...
. Other members of the consortium are
GDF Suez
Engie SA is a French multinational utility company, headquartered in La Défense, Courbevoie, which operates in the fields of energy transition, electricity generation and distribution, natural gas, nuclear, renewable energy and petroleum. ...
of France, The
Kansai Electric Power Company,
Kyūshū Electric Power Company
(, OSE: 9508, ) is a Japanese energy company that provides power to 7 prefectures ( Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Ōita, Saga, Miyazaki, Kumamoto, Kagoshima), and recently, to some parts of Hiroshima Prefecture. Its shortened name of is sometimes ...
and
Japan Bank for International Cooperation
The , JBIC, is a Japanese public financial institution and export credit agency that was created on October 1, 1999, through the merger of the Japan Export-Import Bank (JEXIM) and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF).
JBIC became the in ...
.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Senoko Energy Pte Ltd
Natural gas-fired power stations in Singapore
Sembawang
1976 establishments in Singapore
Marubeni