SINGAPORE - There were no security breaches, such as illegal or unauthorised entry into Singapore, during the power outage at Woodlands Checkpoint earlier in October that affected immigration clearance for several hours.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Faishal Ibrahim said in Parliament on Thursday that during the outage on Oct 9, officers continued to man all critical security posts and access points.
These officers had turned on emergency lighting and were provided with portable emergency lamps, said Dr Faishal, adding that security patrols were increased throughout the outage period.
He was responding to a question from Ms Joan Pereira (Tanjong Pagar GRC), who had asked if the security of Woodlands Checkpoint was compromised during the outage. She was among several MPs who had asked about the blackout, which saw the checkpoint losing power for more than three hours.
In his reply, Dr Faishal also revealed that a fresh tear in the air duct of the backup power generator caused it to fail.
This tear caused hot air from the generator to be discharged into the room instead of outside the room. “As the hot air recirculated in the room, the generator engine overheated and shut down,” he said.
Dr Faishal said that the condition of the air duct was inspected visually and was assessed to be in good condition on the morning of Oct 8.
The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) had previously said that the failure of a backup power generator during a scheduled maintenance of the power source in Woodlands Checkpoint led to the power outage.
The backup generator was to have provided electricity at the checkpoint when the main power source was being maintained, but it failed despite being serviced and tested earlier in the day.
Although the backup generator has been in operation since 1999, its usage is low and it is operated only when the checkpoint’s power source undergoes maintenance or during a power failure, said Dr Faishal.
He added that the backup generator is scheduled to be replaced in 2028.
As a precautionary measure, ICA will consider if the air duct should be replaced periodically, even if no tears are detected, said Dr Faishal.
ICA will also be deploying additional generators as backups during future maintenance periods, he added.
