Floating batteries 'could help Singapore overcome land constraints'

Seatrium's floating living laboratory uses a variety of energy technologies, including LNG transportation and a new BESS. Image credit: Seatrium Ltd.

Installing battery storage systems on floating vessels off Singapore’s coast could be a good way to alleviate the lack of suitable sites on land, according to Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA).

A 7.5MW/7.5MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) has been deployed on the Floating Living Lab, a barge used to trial various marine energy applications, under a project funded by EMA.

The lab's owner-operator, ship builder Seatrium Ltd., has entered into a SP10 million ($7.28 million) partnership with the maritime sector to develop innovative energy solutions for the sector. Seatrium was formed through the merger of two major Singaporean companies in the offshore and marine sector, Sembcorp Marine and Keppel Offshore.

The Floating Living Lab’s BESS project was awarded to a consortium led by Univers, formerly known as Envision Digital, which specializes in decarbonization solutions including energy management, battery storage, carbon management, IoT and e-mobility applications.

The research project was awarded to Envision Digital in 2020, with EMA saying at the time that an innovative liquid cooling solution would be employed using seawater to cool the batteries, as Singapore's hot and humid climate could pose challenges to the operation of the system.

The system is expected to be in commercial operation in the first quarter of 2024. It will charge for energy generated during off-peak hours so that it can be used when demand rises, and will respond quickly to fluctuations in variable generation from renewable energy sources.

Univers has equipped it with an energy management system (EMS) using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, which improves operational efficiency and enables intelligent power dispatching.

EMA and Seatrium note that placing the BESS on a barge means its footprint is 40% smaller than on land, and the floating living lab’s batteries will be stacked.

Close-up of stacked BESS units. Image: Seatrium Ltd.

Land restrictions are an obvious barrier to the development of renewable energy and energy storage facilities in Singapore. Although Singapore has the largest BESS in Southeast Asia to date, a 200MW system located on Jurong Island, an industrialized area that already has most of Singapore’s heavy energy infrastructure, opportunities for land development are largely limited.

“Given Singapore’s limited land area, we need innovative solutions for our energy infrastructure, such as Seatrium’s floating energy storage solution,” said EMA chief executive Ngiam Shih Chun.

While EMA and Seatrium claim the new project is the largest "floating and stacked" energy storage system in Southeast Asia, another project that moved large-scale battery energy storage to ships came online in the Philippines last year. In December 2022, power company Aboitiz Power commissioned a 49MW BESS on a floating diesel barge in Mindanao, Philippines, provided by Wärtsilä. (Click here for related information)

(Source: EMA/Seatrium Global Energy Storage Network, New Energy Network Comprehensive)