ENERGY CONSERVATION (New measures)

Mr Kenneth Chen Koon Lap asked the Minister for National Development, in view of the rapid increase in oil prices, whether his Ministry is considering any new measures for energy conservation.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for National Development (for the Minister for National Development) (Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee): Mr Speaker, Sir, in 1998, an Inter-Agency Committee on Energy Efficiency (IACEE) was chaired by the Ministry of National Development. It was formed to address the concerns over the increasing consumption of energy in Singapore and to look into improving the efficient usage of energy. When this Committee was formed, oil prices were low at about US$15 per barrel. This shows that the Committee was formed at a time when the prices were low and there was no knee jerk reaction to the present energy prices. But now that it has gone up to over US$30 per barrel, the need to act on energy conservation has become all the more urgent and important.

The IACEE has completed its study and released its recommendations to the media in May this year. The recommendations are wide-ranging, long term and attainable. Various agencies are working towards achieving these recommendations. In summary, Sir, these include:

Reviewing and developing building regulations on energy efficiency by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA);

Expanding the Green Labelling Scheme under the Singapore Environment Council which works in cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment (ENV). Under this scheme, equipment which meets certain efficiency and environment labelling standards would be allowed to have a Singapore Green Label, and I believe SEC will be launching this label very soon;

Incorporating energy efficiency as an objective of our land transport policy. Sir, you have heard Dr John Chen announce the hybrid car scheme; and

Monitoring and reviewing the pricing of electricity, and creating awareness amongst consumers on using energy efficiently by the Public Utilities Board (PUB).

Sir, with the current rapid increase in oil prices, the IACEE is coordinating the efforts of all the various agencies, including PUB, ENV and the Land Transport Authority (LTA), to roll out on an urgent basis a series of programmes to inform and educate the consumers on ways to conserve energy and use energy more efficiently.

Mr Kenneth Chen Koon Lap (Hong Kah): Sir, can I ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary which sector is the largest energy consumer, whether it is the residential, commercial or industrial sector? Secondly, he has mentioned a lot of measures to be introduced. Can he tell us whether these measures are recommendations or with some enforcement rules attached to them?

Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee: To his first question, which property sector consumes the most energy, whether it is residential, commercial or industrial, the answer is, of course, industrial, because they are heavy users of energy, like our petrochemical companies. But these are bottomline focused MNCs, so they know what they are doing. And I am sure that they would have factored the cost of energy into their production, because they need to compete on a world-wide basis. But we found that most of the energy is channelled through air-conditioning as well as refrigeration. So the commercial and residential sectors have more scope to improve their energy efficiency.

On the recommendations, whether they are achievable or attainable, yes, of course they are. These are long-term objectives. Although our energy efficiency is quite good, we can always improve further. We have put together various recommendations. The agencies are looking into these recommendations and rolling out their implementation plans.

Mr Simon S C Tay (Nominated Member): May I ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary whether the Government will take the lead in this area and set the example by trying to make sure that public buildings continually become more efficient in use of energy.

Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee: Mr Speaker, Sir, this is indeed one of the recommendations of the report published in May. The public sector is a large sector, and we intend to use the public sector as the leading sector to promote energy efficiency. But having said that, most of the public buildings are quite new and they are really very energy-efficient. So the scope for improvement may be limited. But, nonetheless, we are attempting for a start to band the energy efficiency of all the bigger public buildings. The BCA has compiled an initial list and it would be circulated internally to all the various statutory boards and Ministries. So within the Ministries, they will know which building is more efficient, which is less efficient vis-a-vis the other Ministry's buildings, and this will be compiled on the basis of floor area, usage hours, things like that.

Mr Simon Tay: Hearing the Government's intent to band and grade their own buildings, would it be possible for this list to be shared with experts and practitioners from the private sector, so that we can have more transparency into how different buildings are performing?

Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee: Mr Speaker, Sir, we will take that suggestion into consideration. This is only the beginning. So we thought we will try out with the public sector buildings first, because it is easier for us to collect energy data. But certainly it is a step that we want to advance in the future.

Mr Goh Chong Chia (Nominated Member): Would the Senior Parliamentary Secretary consider some incentives for private sector to be more efficient in their buildings?

Assoc. Prof. Koo Tsai Kee: We are looking at the examples of other countries to see how we can encourage developers, for example, to be more conscious of energy efficiency. We are exploring this. BCA, I believe, is talking to URA and at some time they will talk to REDAS and all the other contractors to see how we can make our buildings more efficient.