PUBLIC UTILITIES BOARD

The Public Utilities Board is continuing to develop its production and distribution facilities to meet the steadily rising demand for electricity, water and gas. Capital development expenditure for 1977 was $402 million, the largest sum spent by the Board in any one year since its inception in 1963. A further $438 million will be spent in 1978.

In the first seven months of this year maximum demand for electricity reached

960 Mw (mega watts) - an increase of 10% over the maximum demand of 872 Mw last year. Average daily consumption of water was 629,000 cubic metres in the first seven months of 1977, increasing to 668,000 cubic metres in the first seven months of 1978, representing a 6.21% increase. The average daily production of gas in the first seven months of the year was 1.42 million units, an increase of 8.69% over the production for the same period last year.

Despite larger capital expenditure and the rising cost of labour, materials and equipment, fuel oil, and naphtha, the Board has been able to keep tariffs for electricity and gas unchanged for the past four and a half years. This has been made possible by the more efficient use of machines and manpower. There is however a limit to the Board's ability to absorb further oil price increases. Tariff revisions will aim at making consumers economise by conserving electricity, water and gas.

From July this year the Board has been supplying electricity to Johore Bahru to help meet the demand for electricity there. This Singapore- Malaysia electrical network link is a step towards the ultimate achievement of a pan-ASEAN electricity grid system. Power system interconnections are beneficial because they make possible the pooling of resources, with a consequent reduction in capital and operating costs.

DEVELOPMENT FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS

Electricity

Much of Stage II of the $597.6 million Senoko Power Station will be completed by the end of 1979. This development, comprising three 250 Mw units, will bring the generating capacity of the Station to 1110 Mw.

The older, less efficient units at Pasir Panjang 'A' Power Station and the old gas turbines at St James Power Station will be run down when Senoko's three 250 Mw units are in operation in the latter half of 1980.

Construction of Stage III of Senoko Power Station comprising two 250 Mw units will commence in 1980 and be completed by 1984. This final extension of Senoko Power Station will bring its total capacity to 1610 Mw.

Water

The Pulau Tekong Water Scheme (estimated cost: $7.3 million) is expected to be completed in mid-1979. Piped water supplies will then be available.

The $69 million Western Catchments Scheme will be completed in 1981, increasing Singapore's reservoir storage capacity by 28.4 million cubic metres.

During this period, work will commence on another two reservoirs - the Sungei Seletar estuary reservoir and the Bedok reservoir - to increase the Republic's reservoir capacity by 18 million cubic metres. Both these schemes are estimated to cost over $100 million.

Water reclamation by advanced wastewater treatment processes to increase the Republic's sources of supplies is also being studied jointly with the Ministry of the Environment.

Gas

A new gas reformer will be required by 1980 to cater for gas demand in the early 1980s. The new gas plant will have a capacity of 0.776 million units per day and is expected to cost $3.5 million. The five heavy fuel oil plants at the Gasworks will be scrapped and only the more efficient pollution-free naphtha reformers will be used.

LIM KIM SAN Minister for National Development