Adventures in IntelligentEnergySystem; a Singaporean Perspective

Dr Eng Kiat Chiang from the Energy Management Authority of Singapore(EMA) was on hand to give us a Singaporean perspective of creating an intelligent grid. According to Dr Chiang, EMA’s previous mandate was merely as a regulatory body, but since 2009 their responsibilities has been expanded to include the ensuring of Singapore’s growth in by ensuring a energy supply is reliable and progressive in nature. On the of the ways that they are doing this is by promoting and testing out of smart energy initiatives via incorporation of new technologies from the information communications sectors. As such they are currently in the middle of conducting a test of an Intelligent System Pilot. This system will allow two way communication between the user and the enrgy grid.

They are about to launch phase two of the test, this will mean that they will carry out infrastructure testing and development. They will eventually roll out Energy Management Systems to 2000 households and 2000 commercial buildings. For the households, they will test out three different type of communicative concepts, one of which being the “last mile communication concept”. Perhaps what is most telling is the fact that they provided enough reliable data for consumers to monitor their power usage. By testing out reliable smart meters, the EMA is helping to educate consumers of the benefits of intelligent energy use, EMA is helping to mitigate against any outage risk. Also, the conscious choice of using a cheap and easy to install modular system, they are able to roll out the system prettyquickly and cheaply.