Latest news with #EnergyMarketAuthority
CNA
02-06-2025
- Climate
- CNA
Parts of Hougang hit by brief power outage, energy authority investigating
SINGAPORE: The Energy Market Authority (EMA) said it will be investigating the cause of a power outage that briefly hit some areas in Hougang on Monday (Jun 2) morning. In response to CNA's queries, EMA said it was aware that electricity supply to parts of Hougang was disrupted at around 11.14am, with power fully restored by 11.28am. 'EMA takes such outages seriously and will be investigating the cause of the incident,' said the authority. National grid operator SP Group earlier confirmed in a Facebook post that parts of Hougang were affected by a temporary electricity supply disruption lasting about 14 minutes. 'Our officers were immediately deployed to the affected areas. Our priority is to restore supply safely and as quickly as possible,' it said. 'Those in commercial or industrial buildings may need to reset their internal electrical network. This could require support from their appointed licensed electrical worker.' SP Group added it was investigating the cause of the incident and apologised for the inconvenience caused. 'Come here to eat for the aircon but blackout … So hot now,' wrote Facebook user August Gan, who posted that she had been at Hougang RiverCourt shopping mall when the power went out.
Business Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Launch of sustainability disclosure tool to simplify SMEs' reporting efforts
[SINGAPORE] Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore may be able to simplify their sustainability reporting efforts, with the launch of a disclosure tool by sustainability reporting and data platform company Gprnt on Thursday (May 22). After Singapore companies retrieve utilities data using their corporate digital identity known as Corppass, the tool will then automatically convert the data to reflect the amount of emissions arising from their operations (Scope 1), or those from their purchase of electricity (Scope 2). The platform retrieves four data points – three of which are related to a company's carbon footprint. These are their water, town gas and electricity usage, which are sourced from the relevant government agencies, namely, national water agency PUB and the Energy Market Authority. The fourth data point is revenue. The tool's ability to retrieve data from the government comes after Gprnt's integration with the Government Technology Agency of Singapore's Myinfo business service, which allows Singapore-registered businesses to share and retrieve their corporate data with participating organisations after consent is given. The integration of the disclosure tool with government data comes about six months after Gprnt unveiled its range of decarbonisation solutions. Addressing the lack of credible ESG data The commercial company was launched in 2023 as a spinoff from Project Greenprint, an initiative by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, to develop solutions that could help address the lack of credible environmental, social and governance data that financiers could use for sustainable financing. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 12.30 pm ESG Insights An exclusive weekly report on the latest environmental, social and governance issues. Sign Up Sign Up It received S$6 million in seed funding from digital payments company Ant International and Japanese bank MUFG. The latest disclosure tool is provided for free to SMEs, but Lionel Wong, executive director of Gprnt, told The Business Times that it is currently engaging with large corporates, financial institutions and government agencies to work out how these entities can access these data on a chargeable basis. 'It is actually beneficial to these large corporates and financial institutions to have more trusted data on their supply and value chain, because otherwise it's very difficult for them to properly calculate their own emissions footprint and deliver on their own net-zero transition plans if they don't have good data,' said Wong. '(They) pay for the disclosure licence so that they can be an end point on the Gprnt infrastructure, and somebody who is disclosing granular and verifiable information on Gprnt can transmit that information to the paying recipient,' he added. Speaking at the launch event on the same day, OCBC chief sustainability officer Mike Ng said the lender can now obtain credible data of companies they finance through Gprnt, without needing to manually obtain copies of their utility bills. The data is used by the bank to determine if a company is eligible for green or sustainability-linked loans (SLL). 'As you can imagine, it is very laborious, requires a lot of time, a lot of effort. And the critical issue is that it's very prone to errors, especially if we are dealing with many, many SMEs in our case,' said Ng. The emissions data via Gprnt can also be used by OCBC to track how clients are performing against the sustainability performance targets they have set for their SLLs. Beyond Singapore While MUFG's customers outside of Japan are mainly large corporations, its head of ESG finance Colin Chen said that emissions data from SMEs would eventually become part of the Scope 3 emissions of large corporations, which refer to indirect emissions resulting from their supply chain. He added that a partnership between the private sector and government was needed to develop an ecosystem where credible data is easily generated and accessible, which was part of the reason why MUFG decided to be one of Gprnt's seed investors. Given that this disclosure tool is backed by regulators in Singapore, Chen said the bank was able to go to its partner banks in other Asean markets to discuss expanding the platform beyond the city-state. To this end, Gprnt's Wong said the intention was always for the platform to be cross-deployable to other markets and not constrained to Singapore. He added that the company is currently pursuing 'similar engagements in other markets that we go into, so far as that data exists and the infrastructure exists', though he declined to reveal the markets. Further down the road, Gprnt is also looking to incorporate Scope 3 emissions data into its platform.
Business Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Sustainability disclosure tool to simplify SMEs' reporting efforts
[SINGAPORE] Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore may be able to simplify their sustainability reporting efforts, with the launch of a disclosure tool by sustainability reporting and data platform company Gprnt on Thursday (May 22). After Singapore companies retrieve their utilities data using their corporate digital identity known as Corppass, the tool will then automatically convert the data to reflect the amount of emissions arising from their operations (Scope 1), or those from their purchase of electricity (Scope 2). The platform retrieves four data points – three of which are related to a company's carbon footprint. These are their water, town gas and electricity usage, which are sourced from the relevant government agencies, namely, national water agency PUB and the Energy Market Authority. The fourth data point is revenue. The tool's ability to retrieve data from the government comes after Gprnt's integration with the Government Technology Agency of Singapore's Myinfo business service, which allows Singapore-registered businesses to share and retrieve their corporate data with participating organisations after consent is given. The integration of the disclosure tool with government data comes about six months after Gprnt unveiled its range of decarbonisation solutions. The commercial company was launched in 2023 as a spinoff from Project Greenprint, an initiative by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, to develop solutions that could help address the lack of credible environmental, social and governance data that financiers could use for sustainable financing. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 12.30 pm ESG Insights An exclusive weekly report on the latest environmental, social and governance issues. Sign Up Sign Up It received S$6 million in seed funding from digital payments company Ant International and Japanese bank MUFG. The latest disclosure tool is provided for free to SMEs, but Lionel Wong, executive director of Gprnt, told The Business Times that it is currently engaging with large corporates, financial institutions and government agencies to work out how these entities can access these data on a chargeable basis. 'It is actually beneficial to these large corporates and financial institutions to have more trusted data on their supply and value chain, because otherwise it's very difficult for them to properly calculate their own emissions footprint and deliver on their own net-zero transition plans if they don't have good data,' said Wong. '(They) pay for the disclosure licence so that they can be an end point on the Gprnt infrastructure, and somebody who is disclosing granular and verifiable information on Gprnt can transmit that information to the paying recipient,' he added. Speaking at the launch event on the same day, OCBC chief sustainability officer Mike Ng said the lender can now obtain credible data of companies they finance through Gprnt, without needing to manually obtain copies of their utility bills. The data is used by the bank to determine if a company is eligible for green or sustainability-linked loans (SLL). 'As you can imagine, it is very laborious, requires a lot of time, a lot of effort. And the critical issue is that it's very prone to errors, especially if we are dealing with many, many SMEs in our case,' said Ng. The emissions data via Gprnt can also be used by OCBC to track how clients are performing against the sustainability performance targets they have set for their SLLs. While MUFG's customers outside of Japan are mainly large corporations, its head of ESG finance Colin Chen said that emissions data from SMEs would eventually become part of the Scope 3 emissions of large corporations, which refer to indirect emissions resulting from their supply chain. He added that a partnership between the private sector and government was needed to develop an ecosystem where credible data is easily generated and accessible, which was part of the reason why MUFG decided to be one of Gprnt's seed investors. Given that this disclosure tool is backed by regulators in Singapore, Chen said the bank was able to go to its partner banks in other Asean markets to discuss expanding the platform beyond the city-state. To this end, Gprnt's Wong said the intention was always for the platform to be cross-deployable to other markets and not constrained to Singapore. He added that the company is currently pursuing 'similar engagements in other markets that we go into, so far as that data exists and the infrastructure exists', though he declined to reveal the markets. Further down the road, Gprnt is also looking to incorporate Scope 3 emissions data into its platform.
Business Times
09-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Common standards needed to boost trade in renewable energy certificates
[SINGAPORE] The lack of standards around the cross-border trade of renewable energy certificates (RECs) is a key barrier preventing companies from signing offtake agreements with low-carbon electricity producers around South-east Asia, said Low Xin Wei, assistant chief executive for the markets and systems division at the Energy Market Authority. This means that there is a lack of additional revenue for these electricity importers, with which the Singapore government is looking to ink electricity import contracts to meet its net-zero targets. He said that major international standards, such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, do not explicitly recognise the cross-border trade of RECs as a valid form of renewable energy procurement. The only exceptions are in the European Union and North America, where markets have been harmonised, said Low at a climate conference on Thursday (May 8). RECs are tradeable assets that are issued when 1 megawatt-hour of electricity is generated and delivered to the electricity grid from a renewable energy resource. Companies can purchase these certificates to reduce their Scope 2 emissions, which are emissions arising from their use of electricity generated from power stations. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 12.30 pm ESG Insights An exclusive weekly report on the latest environmental, social and governance issues. Sign Up Sign Up Given that Singapore has limited renewable energy resources, the amount of RECs that can be generated locally is constrained. There would only be a small pool of such certificates for companies to buy to offset their Scope 2 emissions. The Ministry of Trade and Industry previously announced that plans to establish a cross-border trading framework were under way. Low also said that there is a need to continue with concrete, small steps to make the Asean power grid a reality, starting with bilateral projects. 'Low-hanging fruits would be those which make use of existing interconnectors.' This includes the Lao PDR-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project – a cross-border electricity trade that imports hydropower from Laos to Singapore – as well as the Energy Exchange Malaysia, a platform to facilitate cross-border electricity sales focused on renewable energy.
Business Times
08-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Lack of standards around cross-border renewable energy certificates trade prevents offtake agreements: EMA senior exec
[SINGAPORE] The lack of standards around the cross-border trade of renewable energy certificates (RECs) is a key barrier preventing companies from signing offtake agreements with low-carbon electricity producers around South-east Asia, said Low Xin Wei, assistant chief executive, markets and systems division, Energy Market Authority. This means that there is a lack of additional revenue for these electricity importers, which the Singapore government is looking to ink electricity import contracts with to meet its net-zero targets. He said that major international standards, such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, do not explicitly recognise the cross-border trade of RECs as a valid form of renewable energy procurement. The only exceptions are in the European Union and North America, where markets have been harmonised, said Low, who was speaking at a climate conference on Thursday (May 8). RECs are tradeable assets that are issued when 1 megawatt-hour of electricity is generated and delivered to the electricity grid from a renewable energy resource. Companies can purchase these certificates to reduce their Scope 2 emissions, which are emissions arising from their use of electricity generated from power stations. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 12.30 pm ESG Insights An exclusive weekly report on the latest environmental, social and governance issues. Sign Up Sign Up Given that Singapore has limited renewable energy resources, the amount of RECs that can be generated locally is constrained. There would only be a small pool of such certificates for companies to buy to offset their Scope 2 emissions. The Ministry of Trade and Industry previously announced that plans to establish a cross-border trading framework were under way. Low also said that there is a need to continue with concrete, small steps to make the Asean power grid a reality, starting with bilateral projects. 'Low-hanging fruits would be those which make use of existing interconnectors.' This includes the Lao-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project – a cross-border electricity trade that imports hydropower from Laos to Singapore – as well as the Energy Exchange Malaysia, a platform to facilitate cross-border electricity sales focused on renewable energy.
