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Singapore Public Utilities
The Public Utilities Board, established in May 1963,
was
responsible for providing the country's utility services.
At the
turn of a faucet, potable water was available throughout
the
country. All parts of the main island and several offshore
islands
were supplied with electricity. About one in three
households used
piped gas.
In its early years, Singapore depended on wells for its
water
supply. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, wells were
inadequate to supply the needs of a booming seaport and
the ships
that called there, and a series of reservoir and
waterworks
projects were undertaken. By the late 1980s, the water
supply
system consisted of eighteen raw water reservoirs, twelve
service
reservoirs, eleven waterworks, and about 4,000 kilometers
of
pipeline. Although some water came from rainfall trapped
in
catchment basins, much of the country's supply was
imported from
Malaysia and piped into the reservoir system.
Consequently, water
was a precious resource, and domestic and commercial
consumers were
constantly advised to use it efficiently.
Electricity was made available to the public for the
first time
in 1906. It was purchased from Singapore Tramway Company
and
distributed to consumers in the main town areas. The
demand
escalated from 39,613 kilowatt-hours in 1906 to about
13,000
million kilowatt-hours in 1988. The first power station,
commissioned in 1926, had a generating capacity of two
megawatts.
In 1988 electricity was generated at four power stations
with a
total installed generating capacity of 3,371 megawatts.
From these
stations, electricity was distributed to consumers through
more
than 4,900 substations and a network of more than 23,000
kilometers
of main cables. To meet the increasing demand, a second
stage was
required for the Pulau Seraya Power Station, the first
power
station to be sited on an offshore island. Its Stage II,
having a
generating capacity of 750 megawatts, was scheduled to
have its
first 250-megawatt generating unit operational in early
1992 and to
be completed in 1993. Because all fuel oil used for
electricity
generation had to be imported, energy conservation was
encouraged.
The first gasworks started in Kallang in 1862 using
coal as
feedstock. In the late 1980s, gas was manufactured from
naphtha, a
pollution-free fuel, by six gas-making plants at the
Kallang
Gasworks. To meet the increasing demand, a S$4.3 million
plant was
scheduled for completion in 1989 to replace an older,
smaller
plant. Gas was piped to consumers through about 1,800
kilometers of
gas main extending over major areas of Singapore. Of the
total gas
production in 1988 of 681 million units, about 46 percent
of gas
sales went for domestic and 54 percent for commercial
consumption.
Data as of December 1989
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