Project Description:
In Singapore, the Punggol Digital District (PDD) will host the nation’s first district-level Smart Grid. In November 2024 JTC Corporation announced that it had appointed a consortium of Univers and PacificLight to design, build and operate this grid at PDD. The PDD Smart Grid will integrate solar photovoltaic panels and a battery energy storage system (BESS) with advanced AI-driven controls for real-time energy management. This allows strategies like peak shaving (discharging stored energy during high demand) and consumer demand response (shifting usage to off-peak hours under time-of-use pricing). Once operational (targeted 2026), the system is expected to cut the district’s energy consumption by over 50%, exceeding Singapore’s Green Mark standard. Managed via Univers’s AIoT platform, it will also feed data into Singapore’s Open Digital Platform for district management. Importantly, PDD will serve as a living testbed: companies and researchers can trial new smart grid features (e.g. V2G, underground battery safety, virtual power plant participation) in an actual business park setting. Findings from PDD aim to inform national smart-grid policies and facilitate scaling this model to other districts.