Tuas Power-ST Engineering Consortium and PUB open

Published on by in Business

Tuas Power-ST Engineering Consortium and PUB open

Singapore’s fifth desalination plant
• Opening officiated by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat and Minister for
Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu
• Plant equipped to produce up to 137,000 cubic metres (30 million gallons) of potable water,
strengthening Singapore’s water security
• About 5% more energy-efficient compared to other desalination plants due to co-location
with existing power plant

The consortium of Tuas Power and ST Engineering, along with PUB,
Singapore’s National Water Agency, have officially opened Singapore’s fifth desalination plant
located on Jurong Island. Jurong Island Desalination Plant (JIDP) has a daily capacity of up to
137,000 cubic metres (about 30 million gallons) – the equivalent of 55 Olympic-sized swimming
pools of water.

Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies Heng Swee Keat
was the Guest of Honour at the ceremony, held at the start of the Singapore International Water
Week 2022. Alongside him to open JIDP were Minister for Sustainability and the Environment
Grace Fu, PUB Chief Executive Ng Joo Hee, Tuas Power President & CEO Jiang Hanbin and
ST Engineering’s President for Marine Ng Sing Chan.

Constructed under the Design, Build, Own and Operate (DBOO) model, JIDP will be
operated by TP-STM Water Resources Pte Ltd – the Joint Venture company formed by the Tuas
Power-ST Engineering consortium – for a 25-year period. Spanning over 3.7 hectares, which is
about the size of five football fields, JIDP receives seawater from Tuas Power’s Tembusu MultiUtilities Complex (TMUC) for processing into potable water.

JIDP’s co-location with TMUC allows it to derive synergies in resources such as sharing
of seawater intake and outfall structures, as well as energy from in-plant generation facilities. Due
to the co-location, the plant is about 5% more energy efficient compared to conventional
desalination plants, which translates to annual energy savings sufficient to power nearly 1,000
HDB households.

Building a full-fledged desalination plant on existing infrastructure called for innovative
engineering solutions, from creating modular systems in different areas of the desalination
process to the pre-fabrication of equipment such as the reverse osmosis units. The plant is also
highly automated – a three-man team can run the entire plant’s operations from its control room.
In addition, JIDP incorporates the latest proven water treatment equipment and membrane
technologies such as dissolved air flotation, ultra-filtration, and reverse osmosis.

Mr Ng Joo Hee, Chief Executive of PUB, said: “Although seawater desalination is the most
expensive way to produce water, due to the energy required, it is nevertheless an essential source
of drinking water for Singapore. Desalination is immune to the vagaries of weather and always
available, rain or not. The efficiencies that come from constructing JIDP, our fifth and newest
desalination plant, next to Tuas Power’s existing TMUC make the energy-take for desalination 
that much more palatable. JIDP further diversifies our water production portfolio and its coming
into operation enhances Singapore’s water security.”

"The design and construction of the JIDP has provided ST Engineering the opportunity to
leverage our expertise in large scale engineering projects in the marine sector to deliver complex
environmental engineering solutions. The result is an energy efficient, technologically advanced,
less labour intensive and weather-resilient water source that meets Singapore's water needs."
said Mr Ng Sing Chan, President, Marine, ST Engineering.

“Leveraging on TMUC’s existing infrastructure for seawater intake, the synergies between
JIDP and TMUC have enabled operations to save approximately 5,000 Megawatt hours per year.
That is almost 1,000 HDB households’ energy consumption annually, making JIDP one of the
more energy efficient desalination plants in Singapore,” shared Mr Jiang Hanbin, President and
Chief Executive Officer of Tuas Power.

Desalinated water is one of Singapore’s Four National Taps, and a weather-resilient
source that contributes to the nation’s long-term water supply sustainability. The other four
desalination plants in Singapore are the Singspring (2005), Tuas South (2013), Tuas (2018) and
Marina East (2020) plants. 

SOURCE

Media

Taxonomy