NUS' UTown to pilot SP's digital energy solutions at selected buildings

Singapore, 16 June 2021 –The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has awarded a grant to SP Group (SP) under the Green Buildings Innovation Cluster (GBIC) Programme, to develop and implement technologies and digital solutions to push the limits of buildings’ energy efficiency standards. The GBIC programme is one of the enablers of the Singapore Green Building Masterplan, which in turn supports the Singapore Green Plan 2030.

Equipping building operators with smart tools to be energy-efficient

2          Under GBIC funding, SP Group will pilot a dynamic online digital portal and an artificial intelligence (A.I.) powered mobile application tool to provide real-time electricity and water usage insights to both occupants and building facilities managers. Through the portal, users can keep track of the building’s aggregated water and electricity consumption, and the resulting carbon emissions to enable them to proactively identify ways to reduce their carbon footprint and utilities usage. The portal will come with advanced data analytics to assist building operators to plan and achieve more efficient building management by providing actionable recommendations on saving energy and an A.I. enabled anomaly detection function to prevent energy wastage.

Empowering building occupants to make sustainable choices 

3          Building occupants will also be equipped with an “At Work” function of the SP Utilities App to encourage them to achieve a more sustainable lifestyle. The new function aims to enhance the occupant’s sustainability experience by providing them personalised energy data to build awareness and better understand their building’s consumption performance. Occupants will also be encouraged to adopt green behaviour through gamification such as quizzes and energy saving challenges between occupants, reminders, rewards and tips on saving energy. 

Pilot of digital solutions with NUS

4          The National University of Singapore’s (NUS) University Town (UTown) will be the first development to have these digital solutions implemented under this programme. The solutions will be piloted at two buildings at UTown – the Education Resource Centre and the Stephen Riady Centre – and will be installed in the first half of 2022. Both buildings contain various categories of spatial use such as offices, teaching rooms, sports facilities and commercial tenants. This will allow SP and BCA to test the solutions on a variety of areas.

Sharing of Building Energy Data in SLEB Smart Hub

5          SP will work together with BCA to incorporate Green Mark data reporting functions into the digital solutions to facilitate the sharing of information between buildings and BCA’s SLEB Smart Hub[1]. The SLEB Smart Hub will serve as an interface to receive, combine and analyse data from different resources and report them to the BCA Green Mark certification system. This enables benchmarking of the building’s energy performance against other similar building types, and piloting of green technologies including automatic energy data reporting for data analytics[2].

6          Group Chief Executive Officer of SP, Mr Stanley Huang, said, “Decarbonisation is a collective effort and we are at the forefront of enabling this paradigm shift through our strengths in integrated smart energy solutions. Leveraging digitisation and big data analyses, we can enable all building stakeholders to drive positive change at scale. With the support of BCA and building operators, we will develop user-centric solutions to advance next-gen green, energy-efficient buildings, and create green communities that will accelerate a carbon neutral future for Singapore.” 

7          Chief Executive of BCA, Mr Kelvin Wong said, “The Green Buildings Innovation Cluster or GBIC Programme has been a cornerstone in furthering the deployment of innovation and technology in improving energy efficiency of buildings in Singapore. With active partnership with the industry, GBIC will be an enabler in meeting one of the outcomes of the Singapore Green Building Masterplan, which is to achieve an 80% improvement in energy efficiency for best-in-class green buildings by 2030. SP Group’s work in developing smart technologies will help building operators and occupants to reduce energy consumption. With buildings accounting for over 20% of Singapore’s emissions, BCA welcomes like-minded firms to partner us to reduce the carbon footprint of the Built Environment, working towards our collective goal of a more sustainable and liveable Singapore.”

8          The BCA Green Building Innovation Cluster aims to help push the boundaries of buildings’ energy efficiency standards under the Singapore Green Building Masterplan (SGBMP) and aid the transition to a low-carbon built environment. The SGBMP supports Singapore’s agenda on sustainable development as part of the Singapore Green Plan 2030, and the nation’s efforts to halve its 2030 peak greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

About SP Group

SP Group is a leading utilities group in the Asia Pacific, enabling a low-carbon, smart energy future for its customers. It owns and operates electricity and gas transmission and distribution businesses in Singapore and Australia, and sustainable energy solutions in Singapore and China.

As Singapore’s national grid operator, about 1.6 million industrial, commercial and residential customers benefit from its world-class transmission, distribution and market support services. These networks are amongst the most reliable and cost-effective world-wide.

Beyond traditional utilities services, SP Group provides a suite of sustainable and renewable energy solutions such as microgrids, cooling and heating systems for business districts and residential townships, solar energy solutions, electric vehicle fast charging and digital energy solutions for customers in Singapore and the region.

For more information, please visit spgroup.com.sg or for follow us on Facebook at fb.com/SPGroupSG, on LinkedIn at spgrp.sg/linkedin and on Twitter @SPGroupSG.

About Building and Construction Authority (BCA)

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) champions the development and transformation of the Built Environment sector, in order to improve Singapore’s living environment. BCA oversees areas such as safety, quality, inclusiveness, sustainability and productivity, all of which, together with our stakeholders and industry partners, help to achieve our mission to transform the Built Environment sector and shape a liveable and smart built environment for Singapore. For more information, visit www1.bca.gov.sg.

[1]  Super Low Energy Building (SLEB Smart Hub) is Singapore’s first digital knowledge centre for green buildings in the region, feature-filled with smart analytic tools, datasets, a directory and the largest green building database in Singapore.

[2] Building owners are required to report their energy data to BCA for green building projects funded under the Green Buildings Innovation Cluster (GBIC) programme.