Singapore, 23 October 2017 – SP Group (SP) and Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) announced today that they would be building a multi-energy urban microgrid at the university’s upcoming Punggol campus with a target to reach zero-emission. SP and SIT inked a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the integrated system today at the opening of Singapore International Energy Week, witnessed by Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth & Ministry of Trade and Industry Ms Sim Ann.

With the expected completion of the new SIT@Punggol campus around 2023, it will be the first university in Southeast Asia to have a multi-energy microgrid network. The microgrid, specially designed for Singapore’s tropical climate, will integrate gas, electricity and thermal energy into a unified smart energy network. It will seamlessly incorporate renewable sources of energy such as solar energy and energy storage technologies. Once achieved, the system could help SIT save energy and eliminate carbon emissions, equivalent to removing close to 2000 vehicles from the roads.

As a distributed energy system, the microgrid can operate independently from the national grid in times of emergency. Insights from the collaboration will help to develop innovative solutions to enable a more reliable and efficient energy system to meet Singapore’s future needs where customers can save energy and cost while enjoying a high quality, sustainable lifestyle. The collaboration will also facilitate future research and development in smart energy networks, and will provide SIT students a platform to gain first-hand experience in honing engineering skills and expertise in microgrids.

Mr Wong Kim Yin, Group Chief Executive Officer of SP Group said, “SP Group is committed to create future-ready energy solutions that are clean and sustainable. We are pleased to partner with SIT to develop innovative solutions that enables them to save energy and cost and we are committed to work with SIT to create a zero-emission campus at Punggol.”

Professor Tan Thiam Soon, President, SIT, shared, “SIT is intent on developing innovative solutions to address the challenges in energy and climate change facing our world. We are pleased to work with SP Group on the full campus size microgrid as we develop the latest technologies to secure our energy future. Other than supplying power to our future SIT@Punggol campus, the microgrid will also serve as a living experimental lab to support the research, development and test-bedding of distributed energy systems and cyber-security solutions, which will benefit the whole of Singapore.”

Mr Ng Wai Choong, Chief Executive, Energy Market Authority, also witnessed the collaboration between SP Group and SIT. He said, “The future power system could be increasingly decentralised, as the costs of adopting solar, energy storage systems and smart grid technologies decline. Besides serving as a receptacle for new R&D ideas and business models, this microgrid also offers valuable learning opportunities for power engineering students.”

Students from SIT’s Electrical Power Engineering and other engineering and information security programmes will have the opportunity to participate in the design and implementation of the campus microgrid, giving them practical hands-on experience while building a pipeline of local power and other engineering talents. SIT is also exploring a postgraduate programme in Electrical Power Engineering in the near future aimed at working professionals in the power and energy sector.