Electricity and power

One way to appreciate Singapore's economic rise over the last five decades is to consider the growth and nature of its electricity consumption. In 1961, when its first oil refinery started up, Singapore consumed 636.6 gigawatt-hours (GWH) or million kilowatt-hours of electricity, according to the Department of Statistics. By 2009, it had risen nearly 60 times to hit a record 37,974.2 GWH for a compounded annual growth of nearly 8.89% (see Table 5.1). ¹