Singtel Sustainability Report 2010/2011

MANAGE EFFICIENT ENERGY CONSUMPTION

Singapore has one of the highest per capita energy use in the world. As a result, a key national focus is to reduce energy use, improve energy efficiency and look towards renewable sources of energy. The nation's electricity comes mainly from relatively efficient natural gas combined-cycle (NGCC) turbine power stations.

Energy use is a key issue for our business. Our data centres have higher energy demands than standard buildings due to the need to keep the network equipment and infrastructure cool around the clock.

Energy conservation
One of Singtel's sustainability goals is to save 32.7 GWh of electricity from energy conservation programmes implemented over a period of three years from FY09/10.

Over the course of the year, we have implemented various energy saving measures, including the replacement and overhaul of our chillers and lighting systems to increase energy efficiency. We also create awareness of the importance of energy conservation to all our employees, for example, through our Project LESS environmental campaign (see Chapter 8).

Other examples of energy conservation initiatives that we undertook during the year include replacing T8 fluorescent lights with motion sensor LED lights as well as replacing CDMT lights with energy saving PLC lights at our premises. As a result of these programmes, we achieved 9.35 GWh in electricity savings. This translates into a reduction of our carbon footprint by 4,452 tCO₂e emissions.

Indirect energy use
This year's report excludes electricity consumption by customers on our leased out premises. We lease out some space within our data centres, where our customers provide their own technology and are billed for their electricity use. As we do not have any direct control over this use, we have excluded customer consumption from our report scope for this year and future years of reporting. We have recalculated FY09/10 electricity use on this basis such that all comparisons made within the report are on a consistent basis. Electricity consumption at all hello! and Singtel Shop outlets is included.