Singapore has signalled willingness to let its power generating firms sell electricity to neighbouring Malaysia but has not received any request to extend supply beyond June 15.

“In response to Tenaga Nasional Berhad’s request, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) granted the approval for PowerSeraya Ltd to export electricity to Malaysia till June 15, 2011,” EMA said today in reply to a Reuters query.

"There has not been a request to extend the June 15 deadline.

"EMA will consider requests for export of electricity on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the electricity demand and supply situation in Singapore and any system security concerns," it added.

EMA said Singapore’s total power generation capacity is about 9,800 megawatts (MW), while its peak demand for electricity is around 6,500 MW.

Singapore recently began its first-ever cross-border sale of electricity to Malaysia, where supply has been disrupted by the maintenance shutdown of gas production platforms owned by state

oil company Petronas.

PowerSeraya, which sold the electricity to Tenaga, is owned by Malaysian company YTL Power.

Petronas' planned maintenance

Meanwhile, Petronas clarified reports on TNB's purchase of power from Singapore "due to a shutdown of its gas production platforms".

According to Bernama , Petronas said that it carried out planned maintenance on an offshore production facility from April 19-26 and at an onshore crude processing facility from May 26-June 4.

"The exercises, carried out to ensure the integrity of the systems and processes at the two facilities, required a total shutdown, resulting in a reduction of natural gas supply to our customers during the maintenance periods," it added.

Petronas said it curtailed the supply of gas, including to the power sector, to ensure each customer sector received an optimum volume of gas.

It had also held discussions with its customers and given advance notification of the shutdowns to allow for mitigation measures.

"The maintenance works were successfully completed as per their schedule and the supply situation to customers has since improved," Petronas said.

- Agencies