Building up energy resiliency is critical as threats evolve - panel
Building resiliency into energy systems and infrastructure is ever more important to deal with the potentially destabilising effects of changing weather patterns, cyber threats and financial shocks, panellists said on Monday during the third session of the Singapore Energy Summit at Singapore International Energy Week 2015...
Panellists at Session 3 of the Singapore Energy Summit
By Sandra Tan
Building resiliency into energy systems and infrastructure is ever more important to deal with the potentially destabilising effects of changing weather patterns, cyber threats and financial shocks, panellists said on Monday during the third session of the Singapore Energy Summit at Singapore International Energy Week 2015.
“One big challenge for the energy system – be it the policies, institutions, business models or technologies – is that they were all designed for a stable system,” said Mohinder Gulati, chief executive officer of United Nations initiative Sustainable Energy for All. “Our responses to redesign our systems in terms of regulations, policies and institutions are very slow.”
For Loreta Ayson, undersecretary of the Department of Energy in the Philippines, resiliency is a multifaceted approach involving “the ability and the quality of the energy system and infrastructure to withstand extreme natural and manmade disasters, recovery and returning to normalcy in a timely and efficient manner and, most importantly, building back better”.
Gulati said building energy resiliency should not just be about mitigating and adapting to changes but also putting in place emergency preparedness and response systems and pricing in the risks.
Aaron Domingo, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Meralco PowerGen Corporation, agreed.
“We are able to address the issue on the diversity of fuel supply. We are able to address the issue of building redundancy to be more resilient,” Domingo said. “But we are unable to address what the market price of resiliency should be.”
Some electricity markets have attempted to price in resiliency and reliability, he said, citing Singapore’s regulations to penalise generation companies that had more outages than the rest.
About Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW)
In its 8th edition, Singapore International Energy Week is the premier platform in Asia for energy insights, partnerships and dialogue, bringing together the world’s leading conferences, exhibitions and roundtables in one week and one location. SIEW enriches the global energy conversation by convening political, business, academic and energy industry thought-leaders to define and advance the world’s energy challenges, solutions and actions across the spectrum of oil and gas, clean and renewable energy, and energy infrastructure financing.
Please visit www.siew.gov.sg for more information.
About the Energy Market Authority
The Energy Market Authority (EMA) is a statutory board under Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry. Our main goals are to ensure a reliable and secure energy supply, promote effective competition in the energy market and develop a dynamic energy sector in Singapore. Through our work, we seek to forge a progressive energy landscape for sustained growth.
Please visit www.ema.gov.sg for more information.