Singapore unveils five-year energy infrastructure plan with new solar target and S$5.3bn grid investment
Singapore launched a five-year energy infrastructure plan to meet rising electricity demand, adding five new gas-fired power plants, expanding the grid, and setting a new solar target of 4 GWp by 2035. Peak demand could reach 13 GW by 2031, driven by semiconductors and data centres.
Singapore will embark on a five-year energy infrastructure plan to meet growing electricity demand, with five new natural gas-fired power plants, an expanded power grid and increased solar capacity among the key developments. The plan, announced by the Energy Market Authority (EMA) on Monday (26 Oct), covers power generation, natural gas, the electricity grid, solar deployment, energy storage and low-carbon electricity imports.
Singapore's peak electricity demand as of August was 8.6 GW, but could reach between 9.9 GW and 13 GW by 2031. EMA said this increase will mainly be due to new demand from energy-intensive sectors such as semiconductor manufacturing and data centres, as well as wider use of electric transport. The pace of demand growth will depend on when these new developments come onstream.
Delivering a lecture at Singapore International Energy Week 2026, Minister for Energy, Trade and Industry (Energy and Industry) Tan See Leng said the five-year plan would be the most significant build-up of energy infrastructure in decades. He noted that Indonesia began cutting gas supplies to Singapore over the past weekend, a reduction of less than 2 per cent of the country's total daily gas demand. Dr Tan said Singapore has dealt with similar disruptions due to measures invested in over many years, and assured households and businesses that energy security remains a top priority.
EMA said Singapore has achieved 2.3 GWp of solar capacity to date and is on track to meet its existing target of 3 GWp by 2030. It will work towards an expanded deployment target of 4 GWp by 2035. Dr Tan noted that solar energy is still Singapore's most viable indigenous renewable energy source, but even with a bigger push, it can meet no more than 10 per cent of projected electricity demand in 2050.
Singapore is projected to invest up to S$5.3 billion (US$4.15 billion) between 2025 and 2029 to expand its power grid — 11 times the investments over the preceding five years. This will support seven new transmission substations by 2031 and expand the transmission cable network from around 7,700 km to about 9,100 km by 2030. Between 2026 and 2031, five new natural gas-fired power plants will be operational, expanding electricity generation capacity by around 26 per cent from about 12 GW currently.
Singapore will also increase energy storage capacity from around 350 MWh currently to just over 1 GWh by 2030. EMA has launched an Energy Storage Systems Vision and Industry Consultation Paper for the industry to propose practical technologies and business models. On low-carbon electricity imports, EMA granted conditional approval to Sembcorp Utilities to import 1.3 GW of electricity from Vietnam and Malaysia, with imports targeted by 2035.
