Singapore takes new steps to build nuclear capabilities, upgrade power grids

Singapore has taken new steps to pave the way for deploying nuclear technologies and will launch a roadmap later this year to guide power grid upgrades, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said Oct. 21 at the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) 2024.

Deploying nuclear technologies for energy supplies has been challenging for countries globally, but for Singapore, the challenges are even greater due to limited land space, a lack of precedents and potential dependency on imports for technologies and products.

Gan said Singapore has signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the US, which will enable the city-state to deepen its cooperation on advanced nuclear energy technologies, including small modular reactors, or SMRs.

SMRs are more suitable for city-states like Singapore that have limited land and face challenges in constructing conventional, large-scale nuclear plants. The units of SMRs can be easily shipped overseas, and these systems also offer higher safety standards compared with traditional nuclear technologies.

Gan said the agreement with the US will also allow Singapore to collaborate with other countries that use nuclear energy technologies and designs incorporating components or intellectual property of US origin.

He added that the Singapore government aims to build a pool of about 100 nuclear safety experts in the medium to long term.

Another herculean task in the energy transition is upgrading power grids to accommodate the growing renewable generation capacities on the supply side and the increasing number of electric vehicles on the demand side.

For Singapore, the challenges are even greater due to the small scale of local grids as well as the political and technological difficulties in coordinating power grids and supplies across national boundaries.

The launch of a concrete roadmap has sent a clear message that the city-state is committed to developing countermeasures to address the bottlenecks in this area.

Gan said that the roadmap, titled the Future Grid Capabilities Roadmap, will be launched by Singapore's Energy Market Authority (EMA) in collaboration with SP Group.

"The roadmap will outline challenges associated with the changing context of Singapore's power system and identify key focus areas to transform the electricity grid to manage new complexities," EMA said in a statement released the same day.

EMA said the roadmap would focus on three key areas.

The first focus area is to utilize distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar photovoltaics, battery energy storage systems and electric vehicle chargers, to enhance the power grid's resilience, improve ancillary and demand response services and shift energy use to off-peak hours.

The second focus is on enhancing grid planning, control and maintenance efforts through the development of digital solutions, such as a grid digital twin, to optimize manpower and reduce manual processes.

The third area explores solutions to maintain stable power supplies while increasing the share of renewable energy sources in Singapore's energy mix.