Ohm Energy becomes 2nd electricity retailer in 3 days to announce exit from ‘volatile market’

SINGAPORE — Electricity provider Ohm Energy announced on Friday (Oct 15) that it will be exiting the electricity market here, just days after another provider, iSwitch, abruptly announced its exit on Wednesday due to market conditions.

In a statement to customers, Ohm said that over the past few months, it has seen a “volatile electricity market that has made the pricing of our plans at lower than the regulated tariff unsustainable”.

Based on the monthly trading reports from the Energy Market Company, the independent market operator of Singapore's wholesale electricity market, the average Uniform Singapore Energy Price (Usep) for July last year was S$60.05 per megawatt hour (MWh).

The Usep reflects the energy prices in Singapore every 30 minutes, and it is the price at which all electricity retailers buy from the wholesale market.

This has shot up to S$136.57/MWh in August this year.

On Thursday, the average price was S$1,821.60/MWh, with prices peaking at S$3,811.16/MWh and going to as low as S$267.82/MWh.

Some media outlets had earlier reported that Ohm, as well as a few other electricity retailers, were in danger of shutting.

Ohm said that all its existing customers will be transferred back to national power grid operator SP Group from Oct 20, adding that customers will also receive an ex-gratia payment as a token of appreciation for their support of the company.

Customers can expect to see the payment in their final bill.

“We are currently working with the Energy Market Authority (EMA) and SP Group to ensure a smooth transfer of all our existing customers to SP Group,” Ohm said.

“We would like to assure you there will be no disruption to your electricity supply.”

In response to TODAY’s queries, the EMA said that Ohm served around 27,000 customers, or less than 2 per cent of household consumers in Singapore.

On Ohm’s website, its residential plans showed that electricity was being sold to customers at a fixed rate, which went as low as S$0.2194/kWh for the Simply Ohm plan that has no fixed supply term. This is inclusive of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

In comparison, the regulated tariff rate that SP Group charges customers is set at S$0.2580/kWh for Oct 1 to Dec 31, inclusive of GST.

This is about 17.5 per cent higher than the rate offered by Ohm under its Simply Ohm residential plan.

With the transfer, Ohm said that business customers with an average monthly consumption of less than 4,000 kWh, as well as households, will purchase electricity from SP Group at the regulated tariff.

Business customers with an average monthly consumption of at least 4,000 kWh will purchase electricity from the Singapore Wholesale Electricity Market through SP Group at wholesale electricity prices.

Customers will have the option to approach other electricity retailers once their account has been transferred to SP Group, Ohm aded.

They may write via email to Ohm’s customer care or call its hotline at 1800-835-6463 if they have any questions.