Sembcorp and YCH Group Celebrate the Completion of Supply Chain City’s Rooftop Solar Farm

Mar 22, 2019
Singapore

- Close to 8,000 solar panels, backed by Sembcorp’s real-time digital monitoring system, will avoid about 1.5 million kilogrammes of CO2e emissions a year
- YCH looks to collaborate with Sembcorp to enhance their “green warehouse” concept in Asia

Integrated energy player Sembcorp Industries (Sembcorp) and Singapore’s largest home-grown integrated logistics provider YCH Group (YCH) are pleased to announce the completion of a 2.8 megawatt peak rooftop solar farm built, owned and operated by Sembcorp atop Supply Chain City, YCH’s 2 million square foot flagship facility in Singapore.

Close to 8,000 solar panels will provide renewable energy for the building and its tenants under a long-term contract, with surplus power channelled to the grid. The panels are expected to generate over 3,400 megawatt hours of green power annually, enough to power more than 770 four-room HDB flats for a year. This will help to avoid about 1.5 million kilogrammes of CO2e emissions a year for the building and its tenants, equivalent to the impact of taking almost 320 cars off the road. This further enhances the sustainability of Supply Chain City, already a BCA Green Mark (Platinum) and US Green Building Council LEED Platinum certified building.

Working together to solar-power warehouses in Asia
With the successful completion of Supply Chain City’s rooftop solar farm, YCH and Sembcorp will now look to power other YCH’s facilities with solar energy, in countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. For the past decade, YCH has been pioneering the building of green warehouses of LEEDs certification standard, in various cities in the APAC region. The solar energy initiative is one of the continuous efforts of YCH‘s innovations in “Building Green” in the supply chain and logistics industry.

Backed by advanced digital solutions
This solar energy system is backed by a new high-tech digital system at the Sembcorp Solar Performance Monitoring Centre housed within the same building. Using real-time tracking devices, this centralised digital platform remotely monitors the output of every single string of rooftop solar system installed at Supply Chain City as well as at all of Sembcorp’s other solar power projects in Singapore. Featuring virtual safety cameras, live television feeds and digital dashboards and alerts, the system tracks factors such as weather conditions that affect the performance of solar panels, as well as onsite safety. Accessible by Sembcorp staff at both at the monitoring centre as well as remotely via mobile app, this high-tech system provides enhanced visibility over the operations, and enables maintenance and troubleshooting teams to be swiftly deployed when needed.

This unique system allows Sembcorp to give its rooftop solar customers in Singapore stronger assurance of generation output and reliability, differentiating its solar power offerings against others in the market. Interestingly, Sembcorp’s Solar Performance Monitoring Centre is doubly green - it not only supports solar operations, but also runs on renewable energy supplied by the solar panels at Supply Chain City.

Koh Chiap Khiong, Head of Singapore, Southeast Asia & China (Energy), Sembcorp, said, “Sembcorp takes pride in providing the best solutions to its customers. With the successful completion of the solar energy system at Supply Chain City, we are pleased to partner YCH in helping them to provide their clients a solution which instantly cuts their carbon footprint and gives them cheaper electricity.

In addition, the set-up of the Sembcorp Solar Performance Monitoring Centre embodies the Sembcorp Difference - where we do not just install the panels and sell power, but also think holistically and employ advanced digital solutions to enhance our performance and value for our customers. This system makes the operation and maintenance of our solar assets more robust and enables us to have better visibility and certainty over their reliability.”

Dr Robert Yap, Executive Chairman of YCH said, “Pervasive innovation translates strongly to how YCH builds and manages our facilities. With increasing scarcity of natural resources and extreme weather and environmental changes, YCH conscientiously takes steps to ensure our facilities and practices are efficient and environmentally sustainable. Our corporate social responsibility efforts in championing green logistics also seek to value-add to our clients’ green endeavours.

The inauguration of the solar energy system with Sembcorp marks a new milestone in YCH efforts to build on our green initiatives. We look forward to collaborating with them and leverage their smart solar energy system to power our warehouses across the region.”

Financial impact
The development and completion of this system is not expected to have a material impact on the earnings per share and net asset value per share of Sembcorp for the financial year ending December 31, 2019.

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