Chairman’s Message

We ended the year on a strong note with outstanding performance in safety and reliability. With an established bedrock of engineering expertise and diligent round-the-clock operations, we continued to provide reliable electricity and gas supply for the nation. For the year ending March 2023, this has resulted in an excellent System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) score of 0.176 for electricity and 0.1335 for gas supply. This means that on average, a customer experienced just 11 seconds of electricity interruption and 8 seconds of gas interruption.

With digitalisation as an intrinsic part of business operations and customer engagement, we maintain our focus on strengthening cyber resilience and promoting awareness across the organisation. This is in tandem with industry best practices and in close partnership with government agencies and experts.

The digital transformation of our business has enhanced service capacity and efficiency for the 1.6 million commercial, industrial and residential customers we serve. We have integrated more user-friendly features and services, like the PayNow payment function on the SP app, which has over 1.87 million downloads as at 31 March 2023. Beyond utilities and billing transactions, we are empowering users to track and reduce their carbon footprint through climate-oriented features like Green Goals. These were among the efforts of our customer experience teams who were recognised with the Excellent Service Award (EXSA) 2022. 

Amidst a backdrop of volatile environment, slowing global growth, inflation and higher interest rates, SP Group recorded a strong performance in FY22/23.  The Group achieved a net profit of S$1.033 billion and Return of Equity of 7.9 per cent. 

The Group’s net revenue rose by five per cent to S$2.7 billion, driven by a higher Regulated Asset base and stronger results in Sustainable Energy Solutions.  Regulated business remains stable, recording S$2.6 billion of revenue in FY22/23.  Sustainable Energy Solutions revenue grew by 29 per cent to S$106 million.

With the stable financial result and positive outlook, Moody's and S&P have maintained the credit ratings for SP Group at Aa1 and AA+ respectively. 

SP is taking the lead in charting the decarbonisation journey at our own premises and facilities. We have started installing rooftop solar panels on 37 electrical substations across Singapore. A first in Southeast Asia, we have embarked on a pilot to test the viability of a thermal energy storage system at the George Street substation and install additional chillers to support future expansion of the Marina Bay district cooling network, bringing sustainable cooling to more buildings. This initiative, with the support of the Energy Market Authority, will pave the way for more green projects that leverage our energy networks.

SP is empowering corporate customers such as AIMS APAC REIT (AA REIT) with our capabilities to generate renewable energy for their business needs. Work is underway to install rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems across six of AA REIT’s industrial, logistics and warehouse properties, making it one of the largest rooftop solar installations by any Singapore-listed real estate investment trust. 

We are partnering National Water Agency PUB to participate in the Energy Market Authority’s Demand Response and Interruptible Load programmes. This means PUB will voluntarily reduce its energy use or temporarily shift usage during periods of peak usage or when supply from renewable energy sources is intermittent. This will help balance demand and supply on the national power grid at critical times, while facilitating the integration of more renewables. As a demand response aggregator, SP has the unique opportunity to facilitate electricity load curtailment across multiple sites for suitable companies.

SP is equipping businesses with digital and smart metering solutions, to enhance operational efficiency, hence advancing the sustainability agenda at scale. Last year, key partners including Changi Airport Group, Singapore Land Group, Singapore Pools, Trelleborg, Shaw Organisation, UE Square, Frasers Properties and Ministry of Education, adopted SP’s Green Energy Tech (GET™) to drive greater energy efficiency and reduce carbon footprint in their daily operations.

Our carbon solutions business has taken flight, with a record 1.6 million renewable energy certificates sold to local and regional customers. We have also secured an exclusive partnership with Turnkey, a climate tech company, to provide carbon accounting and climate advisory services to customers in these regions.

Following our first foray into Chongqing, China, a strong pipeline of projects has taken root across 11 provinces in China including major cities like Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu, making SP well placed to be among the top foreign players in the country’s energy sector. In the past year, we secured our first brownfield district cooling project in Chengdu, Wuhou. We have acquired 110 Megawatts-peak (MWp) of rooftop PV assets from Shanghai Unisun New Energy Co Ltd, that will generate more than 111 Gigawatt-hours (GWh) of green electricity annually, amounting to an avoidance of more than 64,000 tonnes in carbon emissions annually. From Sichuan to Shandong, we are supporting industrial parks and factories to incorporate clean energy, by designing solar rooftop solutions that maximise yield, enhance energy savings and lower carbon emissions.

In Vietnam, where we have offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, SP is one of the country’s largest rooftop solar players, partnering respected brands like Sabeco, Saitex, Vinamilk and CJ Group. We acquired our first solar farm assets of 100 Megawatts-peak collectively, generating 130 GWh of green electricity, leading to an avoidance of 105,000 tonnes in carbon emissions annually. Our most recent regional expansion has taken us to Thailand, where we have set up an office in Bangkok.

Our rooftop and utility-scale solar capacity in all markets has grown, with a secured capacity of 930 MWp – 545MWp in China, 330MWp in Vietnam, 10MWp in Thailand and 45MWp in Singapore, of which 273 MWp is operational and 657MWp is under development.

In SP’s signature FUSION programme, 150 staff completed upskilling courses customised for specific operational needs to achieve better efficiency and enrich job exposure.

Partnering the Union of Power and Gas, we launched Project Silver+ with a view to enhance employability of mature workers and help them address opportunities and challenges in this season of their careers.

In the past year, our employees signalled their strong support for SP’s vision and strategic direction with a record score of 87.6 per cent in our annual employee engagement survey. We will continue to invest in developing our people and equip them for the critical services and transformational outcomes of their contributions.

We expanded our outreach in supporting at-risk youth in Singapore, through a S$750,000 donation to Youth Guidance Outreach Services (YGOS), a social service agency that strives to inspire youth in pursuing a fulfilling education and to give back to the community. This funding covered the purchase of an electric vehicle for a new mobile outreach support team and the refurbishment of two youth centres as well as enables YGOS to bring its programmes to more youths.

We maintained our support for seniors through programmes that help them to lead fulfilling and meaningful lives in their silver years. About S$1 million was raised for the SP Heartware Fund last year, reaching out to 23,000 vulnerable seniors. This totalled close to S$20 million raised since the Fund was established in 2005 in partnership with Community Chest. These programmes support services for 25,000 vulnerable seniors. At Toa Payoh West – Thomson, we provided close to 70,000 meals for seniors and engaged them in activities and outings to promote active aging and prevent social isolation.

SP also maintained our scaled-up annual SP Power Packs charity drive, providing 10,000 lower-income families with daily necessities.

The engine behind our community outreach is our pool of staff volunteers, known as SP Heart Workers. They are committed to organising activities throughout the year, such as outings, grocery shopping, befriending sessions as well as the delivery of Power Packs and SP Kids at Heart learning packs.

SP is honoured to be recognised for these efforts through the Community Chest Platinum, Volunteer Partner and Enabler Awards, as well as the Champions of Good by the National Volunteerism and Philanthropy Centre, and the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s Community Cares Award.

Giving new meaning to service with a heart, SP received national recognition for contributing to the nation’s pandemic relief efforts. Supporting the Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 Home Recovery Buddy Hotline, team leader Tan Jun Huang and assistant leader Eddie Neo, who both carry out customer experience roles at SP Services, received the Public Service Medal (COVID-19). They were also among 16 staff who received the COVID-19 Resilience Medal.

As an organisation, SP was recognised with COVID-19 Resilience Certificate, as well as the President’s Certificate of Commendation for sustained support and contributions to the community through donations and volunteerism during the pandemic.