Ng Meng Poh heads Sembcorp’s Group Asset Management team and oversees the operations of Sembcorp’s energy and water assets worldwide. He has more than 30 years’ experience in the energy industry, and has held both government and private sector appointments.
Prior to joining Sembcorp, Ng served on Senoko Power’s executive management team and also spent more than a decade at Singapore’s Public Utilities Board. In the course of his career, he has been actively involved in the restructuring and liberalization of Singapore’s power and gas markets, as well as in negotiations for the importation of piped natural gas from Malaysia and Indonesia into Singapore.
1. What are Asia’s most pressing energy challenges, and what are the opportunities for the region’s private and public sector partners to overcome them?
Power deficits and underdeveloped energy infrastructure are challenges still faced by many countries in Asia. These are further aggravated by rising power demands, flowing from strong demographic growth and continued industrialisation and urbanisation. There are opportunities for public-private partnerships (PPPs) to collaborate in these needs. The private sector has much to offer in such partnerships in terms of innovation and efficiency, and access to funding. Allowing private sector players to manage power generation can also free governments to concentrate on their core responsibilities of regulation and policy.
2. What are some of the opportunities you see as the region progresses towards the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community?
Energy is crucial to the transformation of ASEAN towards a stable, secure, prosperous and integrated ASEAN Economic Community. Assuming an ASEAN GDP growth of 5.2% per annum from 2007 to 2030, the region’s final energy consumption is expected to rise by an average of 4.4% per year and hit 1,018 million tons of oil equivalent (mtoe) by 2030. This is very much higher than the world’s estimated growth rate in primary energy demand of 1.4% per year, as projected by the International Energy Agency.
In view of this, ensuring a secure, reliable supply of energy is a key concern for the region. This has been reflected in the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint, which includes targets for energy infrastructure development and regional energy connectivity. A large proportion of financing given out by the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund to date has also been to fund energy projects and infrastructure, and some ASEAN members are also opening up their power markets to regional private sector players to help meet their power needs. For instance, Sembcorp was recently awarded its first project in Myanmar this year to develop and operate the largest gas-fired independent power plant in the country.
3. Sembcorp recently announced new renewables and gas-fired projects. How do you view the evolution of Asia’s energy mix and Sembcorp’s role in the region’s development?
Asia’s energy demand is currently predominantly supported by traditional fossil fuels. However, we are seeing an increasing consideration and application of environmentally-friendlier alternative energy sources. This trend is likely to continue given the increasing environmental concern, reduced cost of renewable energy, and high cost of fossil fuel importation.
At Sembcorp, we started our power business in gas-fired cogeneration, considered one of the most efficient forms of energy generation. Today we have expanded to have a balanced portfolio of high-efficiency assets running on a diversity of fuels. This includes a growing renewable energy business, as well as thermal projects such as gas-fired and supercritical coal-fired assets.
Given our track record and experience in both thermal and renewable power, we see a clear role for Sembcorp in helping markets in Asia meet their strong demand for power. This includes markets like Myanmar, where electricity demand is expected to increase at a compounded annual growth rate of 13% over the next 15 years, as well as India, where the baseload deficit is projected to remain between 8% and 10% until 2022. In Myanmar, we’ll be developing and operating a 225-megawatt gas-fired power plant, while in India, we have 3,340 megawatts of both thermal and renewable assets, including solar and wind power facilities, in operation and under development.
Meanwhile, we are also actively supporting the greening of energy-intensive industry in Singapore with our 1,215 megawatts in gas-fired power capacity, as well as energy-from-waste steam generation facilities on Jurong Island.
4. Your company recently opened the Sembcorp Technology and Innovation Centre. What were the key drivers for establishing the Centre and why is it important to drive technological?
Sembcorp recognises the importance of developing a clear competitive edge though technology and innovation. In 2001, Sembcorp was the first to import and retail piped natural gas into Singapore on a commercial basis, and also the first to bring cogeneration as well as combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) technology to Singapore. We have continued to remain at the forefront of innovation, particularly in the use of alternative energy resources with our energy-from-waste facilities – such as the Sembcorp Woodchip Boiler Plant and the Sembcorp Energy-from-Waste Plant in Singapore, as well as the Sembcorp Biomass Power Station in the UK.
We also established the Sembcorp Technology & Innovation Centre to proactively create, explore, and commercialise cutting-edge technologies to enhance our capabilities. The Centre houses researchers and engineers who develop and integrate innovative processes, as well as run test-beds for emerging technologies, including energy-from-waste and advanced water technologies.
We see great potential in tapping on big data to optimise our operations and allow for faster and more intelligent decision-making. The Sembcorp Technology & Innovation Centre will soon feature a global asset management system, which will allow us to effectively manage our international energy and water operations from Singapore, better harness our collective global expertise, drive operational excellence, and optimise asset performance for enhanced reliability, availability and cost effectiveness.
The global asset management system will comprise a process optimisation module, which will benchmark plant performance data and provide automatic alerts for any abnormalities; a troubleshooting module using predictive analytics to help technical experts address operational issues the minute they occur; and a predictive maintenance module to identify potential equipment problems even before operational disruptions happen.
5. Can you share Sembcorp’s strategies and initiatives to attract talent to embark on a career in the energy sector in Singapore?
As an industry player, we see manpower development as an important part of ensuring the sustainability and growth of the energy industry in Singapore. We actively participate in initiatives to attract new talent and to raise the profile of the power sector, both by supporting government initiatives in this regard, as well as through our own outreach.
This includes sponsoring EMA’s Energy Industry Scholarship scheme, conducting internships for polytechnic and university students at our operations and plant tours for ITE students, as well as conducting talks on working in the energy industry. Together with EMA, we run the Sembcorp-EMA Energy Challenge, a national annual competition open to ITE, polytechnic and university students, aimed at inspiring and engaging the energy professionals of tomorrow with on-site learning, a competition and internship opportunities. We also work with institutions such as ITE and the Singapore Institute of Power and Gas to provide industry input to shape their curriculum and course offerings.
In addition, we also participate in various platforms where young people get to interact with and be inspired by industry leaders. For instance, Sembcorp’s Group President & CEO recently gave a public lecture and answered Q&As from an audience of students, faculty and industry professionals at a speaking series organised by the Institute of Engineering Leadership at the National University of Singapore. Through it, we hoped to inspire students to join engineering-based companies, especially those in the energy sector, where they can find opportunities to build a dynamic and enriching career.