UAE and Singapore expand energy sector collaboration

Business Bureau, Gulf Today

Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy (DoE), Eng. Awaidha Murshed Al Marar, completed a successful visit to Singapore by participating at Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW), held between Oct.29 and Nov.1, 2019.

The visit rounded off a fruitful week of engagements for the DoE delegation, in which Al Marar and Singapore Officials reaffirmed the strong ties between the UAE and Singapore and the importance of expanding collaboration and benchmarking across a range of energy sector capabilities, critical to accelerating the global energy transition.

The first engagement of DoE Chairman’s itinerary was a keynote address his excellency delivered at Singapore Energy Summit, part of the SIEW 2019 four-day event, on 29 October.

Al Marar shared Abu Dhabi’s energy transformation updates with the summit’s audience of global energy stakeholders including policymakers, professionals, and executive leaders from public and private sectors.

His excellency emphasized the similarities between Abu Dhabi and Singapore in setting an exemplary model for sustainable development and outlined the UAE Capital’s roadmap to accelerate the transition towards renewable and clean forms of energy.

Following the keynote address, Al Marar took part in the panel discussion “Transformation — Accelerating Action” with Dr Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry of the Republic of Singapore, Yeo Bee Yin, Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change of Malaysia, Martin Houston, Vice-Chairman of Tellurian, and Han Jun, Executive Vice President of State Grid Corporation of China.

The session looked at how energy stakeholders can move from ambition to action in accelerating the transformation needed for a sustainable energy future.

During the visit, Al Marar also held bilateral talks with the Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry of the Republic of Singapore and attended different briefings by Energy Market Authority to overview Singapore’s energy landscape and strategy; and by Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources Group to discuss Singapore’s climate change action plan, energy efficiency promotion in industrial and household sectors, water story, and the Ministry’s environmental industry transformation map.

To gain deeper insights into Singapore’s energy transformation strategy and on-the-ground operation, the DoE Chairman’s programme incorporated a number of site visits to Centre for Climate Change Research Singapore (CCRS) and Release of Radiosonde, Tengah Reservoir Floating Solar Test Bed, Tuas Desalination Plant and Tuas South Incineration Plant, where the DoE delegation gained insights into Singapore’s waste-to-energy and the advanced technology solutions it uses to generate green energy from waste, helping in landfill diversion through reduction in the volume of waste disposed.

Commenting on the visit to Singapore, Al Marar said: “Our participation at Singapore International Energy Week was very fruitful. We were able to showcase Abu Dhabi’s commitment to enhance sustainable development of clean energy and to share successful examples of our energy transformation capabilities. In addition, we were able to view Singapore’s newest developments and strategies to accelerate the energy transition and optimise resources to achieve impressive levels of energy efficiency.

Events such as SIEW are important platforms to strengthen relations between Abu Dhabi and Singapore and I am confident, given our common objectives and commitment to enhanced cooperation, that the future will unfold even more opportunities for collaboration in order to accelerate our energy transformation.”

DoE’s participation at SIEW 2019 follows on from the leading coordination roles it played at the 24th World Energy Congress in September, hosted in Abu Dhabi.

The forum saw the department highlight the emirate’s leading role in forging a new energy paradigm based on clean and renewable energy.