Energy Handbook 2011 - GBR

P o w e r S u m m i t - T h e E n e r g y H a n d b o o k 2 0 1 1
C o u n t r y P r o f i l e : S i n g a p o r e
As well as finance, power plant
projects also need insurance to make
risks manageable. One specialist in the
business is FM Global, an insurance
company whose unique approach to risk
has distinguished it from other players in
the field. Boasting a history going back
almost 200 years, FM Global is run by
engineers and is the insurance provider
of choice for most of Singapore’s power
generation companies.
FM Global’s hands-on approach toward
ensuring that power plants will run safely
is part of the reason why the company
now insures 7% of all generation capacity
worldwide. Peter Madeley, who runs the
company’s operations in Asia Pacific,
explains: “We spend several days at each
power plant, in order to physically see
the facility and the protective devices and
witness the critical equipment tests. We
need to conduct a very comprehensive
review, so that the client knows that when
the FM consultation has been complete,
they can be sure that their protective
devices will work as designed.”
Actsys
The service sector also has plenty of room
for independent engineering consultancies,
of which one example is Actsys. Starting
as a one-man company, Actsys has
grown into the leading energy efficiency
consultancy for the power industry in
Singapore and beyond. Celebrating its
10th anniversary this year, Actsys was
founded by Norman Lee, a chemical
engineer who has used his experience in
the process sector to increase efficiency
and operating capacity in energy-related
industries.
So what we do is create our own very
detailed thermodynamic model of the
plant. We are then able to quantify which
respective parts of the plant are losing
energy efficiency, and further tell them
how to do their plant maintenance.”
Actsys has worked with the all the major
Singaporean power plants year after year,
and has now expanded to offer its services
elsewhere. With many power plants in
the region experiencing efficiency issues,
Actsys is well positioned to offer its
services more broadly.
“Our track record sells us, and we need
to be manning up to expand,” Lee says.
“Unfortunately people taking on our
services have to overcome the inertia that
they have built up by operating power
plants for 30–40 years without ever
seeing a value in our work. When they
see the results, then they realise what
they have been missing out on for such
a long time. However, to demonstrate
these results takes time and effort.”
With a total population of around 5m, one
of the major challenges facing Singapore
has been finding the appropriate talent
to support the country’s industries. As a
result, Singapore has attracted numerous
professional recruitment agencies eager
to become the talent supplier of choice
for the region.
Recent steps taken by the government,
such as relaxing the visa regime to allow
contractors to sponsor themselves for a
five-year stay, have also improved the
situation. Mark Sparrow, the head of
ASEAN for recruitment company Kelly
Services, explains the result of this
change: “Professionals in the energy
industry whose contracts run out, but
who want to stay in Singapore, are now
able to search for another job here. While
this may sound like an insubstantial
tweak, it made a massive difference in
retaining intellectual property within the
country. It’s something the government
has done to retain a lot of good talent
within Singapore’s shores.”
personnel in the power industry increases.
Companies like Robert Walters, which now
has a strong presence over south-east
Asia and 100 people in Singapore, has
specific teams targeting the engineering
and energy sectors. While competition
between professional recruitment agencies
has been particularly fierce, it has not
stopped others from entering the market.
EarthStream was established in Singapore
less than two years ago and already has 70
people, nine global offices and a database
of over 160,000 energy specialists.
Founder and CEO Kevin Gibson thinks
that increased specialisation in the energy
sphere makes EarthStream different. “As
a recruitment firm we are not focused on
finding very general skill levels – rather
we like to find very specialised skills sets
on the engineering and technical side of
things,” he says. “We are also looking at
enhancing the skill transference process,
so that individuals who have good
experience in generation or transmission
in one industry, like oil and gas, are able
to transfer their skills to other industries
like clean energy.”
Industry Outlook
After a record GDP growth year in 2010,
Singapore is well placed to strengthen
its position in the energy sector. With
the domestic power market growing
and expanding, Singapore continues to
showcase its liberalised market structure
and influence its neighbours to open
up their power sectors as well. A rising
star in the renewable energy sector, the
country’s R&D sector continues to attract
companies from many areas within clean
tech. The incoming LNG terminal will see
Singapore continuing to establish itself as
a trading centre for all of south-east Asia
over the course of the decade. Singapore’s
track record demonstrates that it is well
positioned for investment in a variety
of spheres, and much of the incoming
investment trickles down to Singapore’s
regional neighbours. Singapore is never
more than a five-hour flight from Asia
Pacific’s most prosperous economic
centres, underlining its central location.
Areas for improvement remain: Singapore
will have to address further the efficiencies
of its plants as well as the never-ending
struggle to locate suitable talent, a task
the country’s small population makes
especially difficult. The regulatory and
legal framework is important, but not
the most significant factor. Instead, as
Ng Quek Peng of GMR puts it: “I cannot
overemphasise Singapore as a society
positioned for investment. When Chinese,
Indians, Malaysians and even Caucasians
come here they feel at home, and this
creates a very conducive environment
for everybody to invest in Singapore. We
come and invest here not because of the
legal or economic system, but because of
Singapore’s society’s ability to make us
feel very much at home.”
“The main area facing the power sector
where we can help is by doing energy
audits and performance management,”
Lee says. “What this means is if a
power plant is going for an inspection or
maintenance shutdown, they would like
to know which parts of their plant are
not performing well, especially in terms
of efficiency. Power producers often do
not have this capability themselves. They
understand that they might not be running In an effort to remain competitive,
at full efficiency but they are not able to professional recruitment agencies have
put a finger on which respective parts also been increasing their focus on energy
of the plant are losing their efficiency. and engineering as demand for specialised
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