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Soft launch of Open Electricity Market to kick off in Jurong

SINGAPORE — Come April 1, households and businesses in Jurong will have the option of buying electricity from a retailer with a price plan that best meets their needs under the Open Electricity Market initiative, said the Energy Market Authority (EMA).

Come April 1, households and businesses in Jurong will have the option of buying electricity from a retailer with a price plan that best meets their needs under the Open Electricity Market initiative. Photo illustration: Mikael Kristenson/Unsplash.com

Come April 1, households and businesses in Jurong will have the option of buying electricity from a retailer with a price plan that best meets their needs under the Open Electricity Market initiative. Photo illustration: Mikael Kristenson/Unsplash.com

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SINGAPORE — Come April 1, households and businesses in Jurong will have the option of buying electricity from a retailer with a price plan that best meets their needs under the Open Electricity Market initiative, said the Energy Market Authority (EMA).

About 108,000 household and 9,500 business accounts in Jurong will have the option of buying electricity from a retailer of their choice, or continue buying electricity from SP Group at the regulated tariff.

An EMA spokesperson said on Monday (March 19): “This soft launch of the Open Electricity Market will provide consumers with more choices and flexibility in their electricity purchases.”

From Monday, consumers can visit http://compare.openelectricitymarket.sg to compare the price plans offered by 14 retailers that are participating in the soft launch.

“The amount of savings that consumers may achieve will depend on several factors including the amount of electricity they use, their consumption patterns and their preferred price plan,” said the EMA spokesperson.

The spokesperson added that this soft launch will allow EMA, SP Group and retailers to gather feedback and fine-tune processes where necessary, before extending it to the rest of Singapore in the second half of this year.

Since 2001, the EMA has been progressively opening up the electricity market to promote greater competition by giving consumers the choice and flexibility to buy electricity from retailers. Going ahead, consumers will no longer be restricted to buying electricity from SP Group at the regulated tariff, and can stand to benefit from more competitive pricing and innovative offers from other electricity retailers.

Telco StarHub and sustainable energy provider Sunseap - who have teamed up as one of the 14 participating retailers - said on Monday that they are collaborating on various fronts including customer service, billing and sales, to ensure a fuss-free experience for households. Both companies are also exploring opportunities in smart energy and Internet of Things solutions to bring continued benefits to customers.

StarHub’s Chief Marketing Officer Howie Lau said: “Working together with Sunseap, we are excited to offer households a compelling way to live a lower carbon footprint lifestyle using the Sun’s energy.”

“Leveraging each other’s expertise, we will bundle essential services from mobile, pay TV, broadband and electricity in attractive packages for customers, who are becoming more environmentally-aware,” Mr Lau added.

StarHub and Sunseap will offer customers a choice of two clean energy subscription plans named Green Life and Green Save.

Mr Frank Phuan, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Sunseap Group that the company is pleased to be in a joint operation with StarHub to help residents go green.

“This will make it easy for both existing and potential StarHub customers to switch to solar energy without any break in their regular electricity service,” he said. Sunseap’s solar energy is harvested from its rooftop solar systems across more than 1,000 buildings in Singapore, including public housing estates as well as commercial and industrial buildings, which convert sunlight into solar energy.

The EMA said that it will be stepping up consumer education efforts to Jurong residents starting April 1, 2018. The focus will be on explaining the choices that consumers have and how their electricity supply will remain unchanged and as reliable as before, even if they switch to buying from a new retailer.

This is because SP Group will continue to operate the national power grid to supply electricity to consumers, noted the EMA.

List of retailers:

  1. Best Electricity Supply 
  2. Diamond Energy Merchants 
  3. Hyflux Energy 
  4. I Switch 
  5. Keppel Electric 
  6. Ohm Energy 
  7. PacificLight Energy 
  8. Red Dot Power 
  9. Sembcorp Power 
  10. Senoko Energy Supply 
  11. Seraya Energy 
  12. Sun Electric Power 
  13. Sunseap Energy 
  14. Tuas Power Supply

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