Keppel and PUB officially open Keppel Marina East Desalination Plant

Singapore, 4 February 2021 – Keppel Infrastructure Holdings Pte Ltd (Keppel Infrastructure) and PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency, have officially opened the Keppel Marina East Desalination Plant (KMEDP), Singapore’s fourth desalination plant.

KMEDP, Singapore’s first large-scale, dual-mode desalination plant, is capable of producing 137,000 cubic metres (about 30 million gallons) of fresh drinking water per day. The plant commenced commercial operations from 29 June 2020. It is operated by Marina East Water Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Keppel Infrastructure, for a 25-year concession period from 2020 to 2045, under the Design, Build, Own and Operate (DBOO) arrangement with National Water Agency PUB.

Located at Marina East, KMEDP can either treat seawater or freshwater drawn from the Marina Reservoir, depending on the prevailing weather conditions, thus strengthening Singapore’s water supply resilience.

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Ng Joo Hee, Chief Executive of PUB, said, “Seawater desalination is one of Singapore’s four national taps. Unlike the other three taps—imports, rainfall and recycled water—it is a practically limitless source. It is also weather-resistant and always available, rain or shine, as a source of life-giving water. The availability of desalination makes Singapore’s water supply immensely resilient. The KMEDP coming onboard further strengthens Singapore’s water security.”

KMEDP is the second water plant developed and operated by Keppel under the DBOO arrangement. The first, Keppel Seghers Ulu Pandan NEWater Plant, commenced commercial operations in 2007.

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KMEDP is the first desalination plant in Singapore to feature energy-efficient direct coupling of the ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) systems. This is where water filtered from the upstream UF process is fed directly to the downstream RO process, eliminating intermediate break tanks and pumping stages. This results in significant cost and space saving, and makes the process up to 15 per cent more energy-efficient.

– Construction+ Online

Source: PUB