Safety is everyone’s responsibility and our highest priority across all businesses at SP. Colleagues like Leslie Neo, Deputy Director from Group Safety and Health (GS&H), work closely with stakeholders from business units and contractor partners to implement programmes for the safety and well-being of our staff, contractors and the public.

Leslie oversees the safety surveillance team, which monitors work site activities to ensure that safety requirements are strictly adhered to and that workers conduct all activities in a safe manner.

“It’s more than just ticking off boxes during site safety inspections. Every life is precious, so we have to make sure that all workers understand what it takes to be safe, work safely and get home safely,” says Leslie.

On any given day, SP and its contractors have works in progress at up to 300 sites across Singapore. Some activities are high-risk, such as excavation, working at height, and lifting works.

Leveraging technology, Leslie and his team have implemented the SAFE365 mobile app. Developed in collaboration with the SP Digital and User Experience & Design teams, SAFE365 has streamlined worksite safety management processes. It offers contractors a mobile platform for seamless and efficient entry of contract and worksite information, as well as access to resources necessary for performing work safely on site. Our GS&H officers use the app to assess the performance of contractors in accordance with SP’s safety standards and requirements.

Leslie actively engages with agencies and global utilities peers to benchmark performance and exchange best practices. These discussions have helped to enhance SP’s measures and led to the implementation of new programmes. SP’s commitment to safety has also earned international recognition from industry bodies.

Cable renewal requires precision and meticulous planning in activities that take place around the clock. Ang Shan Shan, a Technical Officer from SP’s electricity distribution projects team, oversees multiple cable renewal projects across Singapore. The process is more than simply swapping out the old for the new.

At the planning stage, Shan Shan and her team must address a comprehensive range of factors, such as avoiding service disruption and minimising inconvenience to the public. Works in areas which are highly populated and have heavy traffic require coordination with several authorities. Often, this means scheduling excavation works after office hours.

Despite the magnitude of her responsibilities, Shan Shan is never overwhelmed. Behind every cable renewal project is a team of engineers and technical officers, whose expertise, dedication and camaraderie ensure that the task meets all objectives and is carried out seamlessly from one stage to the next.

Shan Shan says, “Some of these projects take place late at night and into the wee hours of the morning. But we work as a team and support each other. We are like The Avengers, coming together to complete an assignment, each with our area of expertise.”

The most rewarding aspect of her job is the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes from renewing aging cables and preventing power outages. These efforts are often unseen, but the work of Shan Shan and her team is crucial in maintaining Singapore’s reputation for its reliable electricity supply and grid network.

As the energy transition picks up pace, the role of transmission planning engineers has never been more critical. For Chen Li, Senior Principal Engineer in SP’s Transmission Planning section, the heavy lifting in his work is done behind the scenes, meticulously planning the upgrading and expansion of the national electricity grid to support Singapore’s future network requirements.

A big part of his job involves coordinating with multiple government agencies to understand the nation’s future infrastructure developments and electricity requirements. Chen Li and his colleagues run rigorous analyses and simulations based on information from the power demand map to predict potential issues and devise solutions before any work commences. In order to improve efficiency and accuracy, he has also developed software that is able to automate the running of building and contingency simulations.

“We have to build 300 to 400 contingency scenarios and run a hundred simulations to ensure the chances of a power disruption are slim. The process is extremely thorough,” he remarks.

The team uses historical data to compute various factors and obtain a realistic view of changes in power demand in Singapore. The simulation software models Singapore’s network, where Chen Li and his team can test scenarios, measure its success rate and project potential outcomes.

Azhar bin Mohamed Noor wears two hats at SP. In addition to his role as Principal Engineer in Gas Operations, he is also one of 24 Technical Experts in an in-house mentorship programme, where veterans like Azhar share their wealth of knowledge and experience with the next generation of engineers.

His primary responsibilities include the operation and maintenance of the gas network, specifically overseeing the gas transmission pipelines. This extends to reviewing technical designs and exploring new technologies in the realm of high-pressure gas works.

As a mentor, Azhar’s view is that “Discipline is necessary when it comes to learning. The conditions of our work environments require us to think critically and rationally. It’s important to anticipate issues with the gas network and focus on coming up with solutions.”

Under his watchful eye, his younger colleagues have benefitted from his guidance in pipeline diversion projects and improved their competency in utilising analytical tools.

Despite having 30 years of engineering experience under his belt, Azhar still finds the role of a mentor challenging as it requires balancing key aspects of the job like quality, safety, reliability and innovation, while honing analytical and problem-solving skills. He believes in a strict yet nurturing approach to provide the right environment for holistic learning.

Advancements in digital technologies have transformed the way our customers interact with us and use our services. SP’s customers benefit from being able to monitor their utilities usage and pay their monthly bills anytime, from anywhere. While this offers greater convenience, customers may navigate digital touchpoints differently.

For Tony Tan, Senior Manager in Customer Experience at SP’s Digital Contact Centre, it is important to be aware of customers’ varied needs and responses in each situation. From helping users navigate the SP app to assisting customers with their utilities account, Tony takes pride in ensuring that every interaction with SP’s 1.6 million customers is an opportunity to make an impactful impression.

Tony believes that empathy is important in his service. He explains, “We listen with our ears and more importantly, with our hearts.”

On multiple occasions, Tony took proactive steps to assist customers by working with various departments to offer solutions. In addition, it takes emotional intelligence to understand the real concerns behind every customer.

Colleagues like Tony are the brand guardians of SP, and their work goes beyond answering calls, even as the team handles a high volume of calls per day. A keen grasp of products and services, critical thinking, and a flair for reading spoken and unspoken cues are all in a day’s work.

Christina Li is a champion of clean energy transition in Singapore. As a principal engineer in SP’s Sustainable Energy Solutions team, she is involved in the project costing and planning strategy, design and implementation of systems including Solar Photovoltaic (PV) systems and Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) across SP’s commercial and industrial customer premises.

Planning is crucial for the success of solar installation projects. From cost analysis to compliance with regulations, Christina and her team must carefully design and tailor an effective solar PV system that meets the specific needs of the customers’ premises. Additionally, they also assess the site, examine electrical risers’ compatibility, and perform shading analyses to ensure the solar panels have optimal solar exposure.

“Every project is unique”, says Christina. “Unlike other countries, Singapore is land scarce, which poses a challenge for scalable deployment of solar PV systems. It is our job to come up with solutions to boost solar energy capacity,” explains Christina. Navigating the evolving landscape, she has developed an innovative method that employs foldable and movable structures in solar PV system design. This new device makes it feasible to deploy solar PV installation at temporary land or building roof-tops, instead of only on permanent land or building roof-tops.

Looking ahead, Christina is optimistic about the future of solar PV and BESS technologies. She believes that the key to a sustainable future lies in continued innovation.

Muhammad Shamil Abu Bakar and his colleagues from Transmission Facilities Management carry out routine inspections of SP’s electricity substations to ensure the infrastructure of the buildings are maintained according to the Building Control Act regulated by the Building and Construction Authority.

On a typical workday, Shamil has to access building facades and rooftops to carry out inspections or maintenance works. However, this changed when SP began utilising drones, equipped with high resolution cameras and live videography capabilities. This enables building inspections to be done more quickly, safely and efficiently, even reaching areas that used to be blind spots.

Shamil is one of the nine staff who have undergone training and become certified drone pilots. This effort is also representative of SP’s commitment to upskill its employees. Shamil is glad that his new skillset has improved efficiency in his work duties. He shares that “it is a special privilege to be formally recognised as a certified drone pilot.”

Besides industrial buildings, Shamil’s work includes maintaining the substations of districts and estates in Singapore. Investing in employees’ skills upgrading is key for SP in keeping its labour force competitive and ahead of developments in the industry.