Keppel Infrastructure Holdings Private Limited (Keppel Infrastructure) and Singapore’s Public Utilities Board (PUB) have officially opened the Keppel Marina East Desalination Plant (KMEDP). It is operated by Marina East Water Private Limited, a subsidiary of Keppel Infrastructure, for a 25-year concession period from 2020 to 2045, under a design, build, own and operate (DBOO) arrangement with PUB.
KMEDP is capable of producing 137,000 cubic metres of fresh drinking water per day. It can treat seawater or freshwater drawn from the Marina Reservoir. It is one of the first infrastructure projects in Singapore to employ 3D, 4D and 6D Building Integrated Management (BIM) systems. KMEDP is also the first desalination plant in Singapore to feature the energy-efficient direct coupling of the ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) systems, where water filtered from the upstream UF process is fed directly to the downstream RO process, eliminating intermediate break tanks and pumping stages, resulting in significant cost and space saving, and making the process up to 15 per cent more energy efficient.
KMEDP is Singapore’s first large-scale, dual-mode desalination plant, and fourth desalination plant overall. It is also the second water plant developed and operated by Keppel under the DBOO arrangement. Keppel Seghers Ulu Pandan NEWater Plant, the first plant under the DBOO arrangement, commenced commercial operations in 2007.