ONE of the first hydrogen-ready power plants in Singapore has advanced into its next phase of development, with its project developer in talks with banks to raise funds for the estimated project cost of S$800 million.
Industry players, at the same time, are optimistic that Singapore is leading the region to be hydrogen ready and realise hydrogen-powered electricity.
YTL PowerSeraya has officially commenced the development of the 600-megawatt combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) on Jurong Island, which is set to be completed by end-2027.
John Ng, group chief executive officer at YTL PowerSeraya, told The Business Times at the groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday (Oct 23) that the current focus is to get the project ongoing, and the next step is the financing. “We were talking to the banks on the financing, so it’s still early days on that.”
Tan See Leng, Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Trade and Industry, said at the ceremony: “We expect Singapore’s system peak demand to continue to grow by about 3 per cent to 5 per cent per annum over the next decade to support the growth in economic activities and digitalisation.
“The completion of this new CCGT by 2027 will allow us to meet this rising demand.”
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Early this year, the Energy Market Authority awarded its inaugural request for proposal exercise for such a facility to the YTL Power International unit.
GE Vernova and SEPCOIII, as consortium partners appointed by YTL PowerSeraya, will commence the development of the hydrogen-ready power generation technology.
“GE Vernova’s current technology is able to generate electricity based on 50-per-cent hydrogen… They’re also in the process of improving R&D (research and development) and upgrading the plant to be 100 per cent ready in terms of hydrogen,” said Ng. He noted that GE Vernova, as the original equipment manufacturer, has not specified the timeline on the R&D process.
YTL PowerSeraya’s hydrogen-ready CCGT is designed to be 50 per cent hydrogen capable upon completion and can be retrofitted to run on 100 per cent hydrogen.
“I’m quite sure when large-scale hydrogen is available, manufacturers will be ready …but easily available hydrogen is still not there yet,” Ng added.
Ecosystem is getting ready
Ng noted that YTL PowerSeraya is ready to either convert the rest of its machines to be hydrogen compatible or further invest in new plants for hydrogen readiness, depending on the development of hydrogen infrastructure and availability.
“Whatever things that we do, it must be aligned with the development of the entire ecosystem,” said Ng, who is optimistic about a hydrogen-powered future and Singapore’s national hydrogen strategy.
His sentiment was shared by several industry players during panel discussions earlier in the day at Singapore International Energy Week 2024.
Hayley Pham, vice-president of business development for ExxonMobil low carbon solutions business in Asia-Pacific, noted that ExxonMobil is currently in talks with local companies in Singapore to promote the use of hydrogen and ammonia in power generation.
She noted the Republic’s governmental efforts to push for hydrogen-ready power generation that has helped the industry to build up the momentum.
Vipul Tuli, chairman of South Asia and CEO of global hydrogen business and the Middle East operations at Sembcorp, noted that a set of companies are actively innovating and “moving ahead very seriously”.
“I think by this time next year, we will be in a very different industry. We will then start to have a few projects at scale,” said Tuli, noting that Sembcorp’s several projects on renewables and hydrogen power generation had achieved final investment decision stage.
