Singapore's renewables usage hits record high as imports, solar output rise
Domestic solar generation in May rose at the fastest pace since March 2024 and renewable imports rose a third straight month to their highest in more than two years, lifting the share of renewables in the city-state's power mix to 2.58%, data from the National Electricity Market of Singapore showed.
Regional electricity trade is crucial to Singapore's aim to become carbon neutral by 2050, as Asia's second-smallest country has limited renewable energy potential. Cross-border power trade is also seen as key to easing regional reliance on fossil fuels amid growing data centre-driven power demand.
Gas-fired power plants in Singapore account for about 95% of its power capacity.
In the five months through May, the data showed Singapore imported 122.7 million kilowatt-hours of clean power - 0.52% of total generation - through the Lao PDR-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore (LTMS) power trade route that was set up in 2022.
It did not import any power during the same period last year, the data showed, and only started importing small quantities in the last quarter of 2024.
The share of imports in Singapore's power mix rose for a third straight month in May, displacing some fossil fuel-fired generation. Singapore's total electricity generation grew 0.4% during the first five months, the data showed.
Though the imported power came through the LTMS framework, all of it originated from neighbouring Malaysia under a 50-megawatt supply agreement reached last year with Malaysian state utility Tenaga Nasional Berhad, said a source familiar with the matter who was not authorised to speak with media.
Singapore's Energy Market Authority (EMA) did not respond to a request for comment.
The EMA last year doubled the capacity of electricity that can be traded in the second phase of the LTMS to 200 MW through additional supply from Malaysia.
It said in October, however, that it had yet to finalise the terms of an extension to the supply of hydropower generated in Laos and sent to Singapore via Thailand and Malaysia.
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