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Sembcorp to expand Southeast Asia’s biggest battery storage site

Built across two sites on Jurong Island, Sembcorp’s lithium ion battery storage system will now be expanded to 311 MWh. Meanwhile, Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA) has awarded grants to local sodium-ion and vanadium-flow specialists in a bid to enhance grid stability, also via underground system deployment.

Singapore’s state-owned energy and urban development company Sembcorp Industries has confirmed that it will be working on the expansion of its existing battery energy storage system on Jurong Island, which is billed as Southeast Asia’s largest such installation.

The company said that it will collaborate with Singapore’s EMA “to pilot the country’s first battery stacking solution on land.” The project operator is hoping to boost the current battery capacity from 285 MWh to approximately 311 MWh optimizing the use of land that its existing system is already occupying.

Singapore’s finite land resources have held back the development of utility-scale renewable energy projects in the country and forced it to look at alternative solutions, such as floating solar or imports from the world’s biggest solar and battery project – Sun Cable in Australia’s Northern Territory, which received a tick of approval from EMA earlier this week.

The country has been progressively working toward its decarbonization goals. It has set a 2030 solar target of at least 2 GWp – a goal set five years ago when the country’s cumulative solar fleet stood at 260 MWp. Today, the country hosts 1.35 GWp of solar – a fivefold increase from 2019. In terms of energy storage systems, Singapore aimed for the deployment of 200 MWh beyond 2025 – a target achieved two years early with the commissioning of Sembcorp’s Jurong Island facility in 2023.

“As one of Asia’s largest and fastest-growing ESS operators, Sembcorp is committed to strengthening our capabilities and exploring innovative engineering solutions to support the growth of the renewables sector,” the company wrote on its LinkedIn page.

The announcement follows the address of Gan Kim Yong, deputy prime minister, at the Singapore International Energy Week on Monday, in which he said that EMA and Sembcorp are in discussions to expand the Jurong Island system and increase the land use density.

The government official said, “…we need to step up the deployment of energy storage systems to manage solar intermittency.” He also stressed that the country needs to prepare its grid to integrate distributed energy sources, such as rooftop solar panels and energy storage systems, with the help of demand reponse programs and virtual power plants.

Meanwhile, EMA said on Wednesday that it had awarded grants totalling SGD $7.8 million ($5.9 million) to two companies to explore solutions that “could enhance the cost-effectiveness and optimise the space required for energy storage systems.”

The two research and development projects were selected based on their potential to be scaled up, as well as their potential advantages in Singapore’s context. The projects include Posh Electric’s sodium-ion battery trial in the context of their future cost competitiveness with the ubiquitous lithium-ion technology and VFlowTech’s study on the potential for locating energy storage systens underground.

“Locating ESS underground will minimise the land required, but will also require a better understanding of its safety parameters, including fire safety. This study will also test the use of a lithium-ion/vanadium-flow hybrid battery system,” EMA said in a release.

Puah Kok Keong, Chief Executive, EMA said, “As Singapore expands solar deployment, energy storage systems will become more important to enhance grid resilience and ensure power system stability. I welcome the development of energy storage systems that are safe, cost-effective and space-efficient.”

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