How Expensive is Singapore's Electricity Price?

25 December 2021

Singapore has deregulated its electricity market.  Its people are buying electricity from the electricity market.  The price will vary according to the electricity plans chosen;  however,  most plans will centre around and be slightly lower than the regulated price.  The defaulted power supply retailer is SP Group.     

Singapore's regulated rate will change once every 3 months or quarterly.   It is worked out based on the past market price using a complex formula which not many people cannot understand.  Here is  a chart from SP Group indicating the prices for various quarters since 2020

How is it compared to other countries?

1)  Among the popular countries

 

Source:  Cable.co.uk

2)  Among Most Expensive Countries

3)  Among the ASEAN Countries

4)  Among Most Popular Countries

Other Related Articles

1.  Why the Electricity Prices & WholeSale Electricity Rates are so high?

Energy Saving Auto-Switching Lighting System

15 December 2021

Some people do not have the habit of switching off the lights off in bathrooms,  toilets,  staircases,  corridors,  hallways, or in areas such as inside cabinets or locker rooms.   Also,  the elderly have poor eyesight;  they are prone to falling down after knocking themselves against the walls or poles especially when they are probing in the dark during early hours.  This article wants to share a home lighting system that these people can use at home,  not only to save energy but also to protect the elderly.

Auto-Switching Lighting System?

These are lighting systems that will switch on automatically when someone is approaching the light fittings.  

The "key" of the lighting system is the sensor that will sense the presence of some moving objects. There are generally 2 types of sensors available in the market for the auto-lighting system.   One of them uses Pyroelectric InfraRed Sensors or Passive InfraRed Sensors (PIR) & the other uses Radar Motion Sensors.  For those who are interested to know more about how motion sensors work,  please read here.

What is available in the Market?

There are plenty of different kinds,  types, and makes of auto-switch light fittings available in today's market.  They are all made from LED running either on battery or mains operated. The latter will need an inverter driver to convert the ac supply to dc supply.   

Generally, they fall into the following category:

This project is more interested in using the auto-switch LED lighting system that has a USB charging port.  

Why?  

One can use such a lighting system for wiring up the whole apartment using a cheap and simple wiring system that can be hidden from view and is less dangerous for the novices.   It can save buying a lot of rechargeable batteries and the inconvenience of charging the batteries at regular intervals;  also,  one can innovate to control the lighting system such as making the lighting system only available during dark hours.  

How?

The following is a schematic diagram showing how the wiring system can be set up using the cheap and thin 2-wire flat cable that can be hidden under the carpet,  behind the joins, and alongside the edge of walls or fixed to the wall without elaborated wiring accessories or otherwise normally required under the National wiring codes.  All one needs to observe is to run the cabling system separately from the normal mains cables.   This would not be a problem if the existing mains cables are of the concealed type which is usually encased in metal conduits for added mechanical protection.

Can Give Examples?

Take for example the auto lighting for the staircase,  there is usually a space underneath the staircase where most would convert it to the storeroom.   This is the best place to install the timer and the 5-volt power supply from which wiring will start to go into the bedroom and toilet etc.  

For the staircase lighting,  some might try fancy ideas such as using strings of LED lights or installing lights at every step of the staircase.  This is really not necessary.   It is just a waste of money.  

Usually,  2 nos of 1.5 Watts 10x LED lights as shown attached as the following will be sufficient to illuminate the staircase depending on the flight of the staircase. 

One could also use other types provided they have a USB socket for 5 volt supply.   

If the light fitting is complete with lithium batteries,  one might have to find one that has good and reliable lithium batteries or circuitries that will allow over-charging.  This is because some poor-quality lithium batteries can be a fire hazard when they are overcharged for a prolonged period using non-approved chargers.  The alternative is to have the built-in rechargeable Lithium batteries removed.  

What are the Required Accessories?

Other than the electric solder and wires & usual tools like screwdriver etc,  one might need the following:-

What if I want lights to be on all the time?

Different manufacturers have different designs for these LED lightings.  Some come with extra switching facilities allowing the lights to be adjusted if one wanted longer light-on interval or permanently on or off.  If one really doesn't want a pitch dark room after the auto-light is off;  such as in the toilets or bathrooms,  one might want to install an additional small LED lamp.  either off the shelves or construct one from parts and connect it to the circuit. 

 

Water & Electricity Saver for Instantaneous Heater

Important Note & disclamers :  Modification to any water heater is extremely dangerous.  It should only be done if only you are familiar with the device as there are many accidents involving electricity electrocutions if the modification is not done properly.  

The alternative and safe way to achieve the same result is to turn on the tap to switch on the instantaneous heater on a high setting for a few seconds  and then turn off the tap for the water in the heater to be warmed up.

This article is just for reference only.  The author assumes no responsibility whatsoever.

Introduction

In tropical countries,  electrical instantaneous heaters are often used.  This is because residents often need only heating for showers. These heaters do not occupy space. They often save water and electricity as compare to water storage heaters. Also, they are less than 3 KW and can be powered from the usual 13 Ampere power point. This article will describe a device that will further save some water and electricity.

Working Principle

Every Instant water heater has a small heating exchanger. It gets power through a set of micro-switches that select 2 or more heating elements to warm up the water. The modern ones nowadays use electronic TRIACs to control the heater.

 

For these heaters to heat up the water, one needs to first set the selector switch and turn on the water. The water pressure sensor will pick up the pressure and actuate the micro-switches. These switches will turn on the appropriate heater element to heat up the water in the exchanger. The schematic circuit diagram of Aerogas Elegance water heater is as shown below:

 

Water & Electricity Savings

To heat up the water, water must first flow through the heater for the pressure sensors to pick up the pressure. Water amounting to 1.2 litres will be wasted before warm water can flow out of shower head. At the same time, electricity amounting to about 8 Watts-hr will also be wasted. Assuming a household of 4 persons might take 6 showers per day,  a total of about 2,600 litres of water and 17 kWh of electricity can be saved per year. This might sound to be petty savings for one household.  But it is still a sizable saving for a township of more than 10,000 families.

 

How Water and Electricity Can be saved?

To save, one can use this electronic gadget called “Trigger Delay Time Off Timer” as shown in the following:

 

Circuit Description

The gadget operates on 220V AC supply.  The delay time off is triggered started by a button.  The complete schematic diagram is as shown below

For the gadget to work in the seconds range, the default variable resistor must be changed from 50K ohm to 5K ohm. As the heater will consume 9-13 amperes, it is also necessary to add an external relay. The built-in relay has only a 10 ampere rating.

This gadget has an opto-coupler to isolate the trigger button from the 240V Supply. But the button is linked to the neutral terminal of the 240V supply. It does not offer complete electrical isolation. It will be ideal if there is an isolating transformer for electrical isolation.

 Wiring up

Safety Precautions

Important Note: Wiring up will need one to know about safe use of electricity. A wrong wiring such as wrong polarity connection by interchanging the line and neutral wires for example,  can cause shower head or water to be alive. It can be dangerous causing electrical shorts and execution.

Whenever possible, use only push button of plastic material. If metal material is used, its body must be connected to the earth.  Only waterproof push button can be used.

Further, one should always test the integrity of the heater’s earthing system. The method described in this article can be used to test theearthing.

To further protect the heater, it is recommended to install the following:

1) A Thermal fuse to cut the supply to the relay when the heat exchanger reaches an abnormal temperature of 85^oC. This temperature is about twice the normal operating temperature of the heat exchange. The thermal fuse must be of non-metallic type.  It is to be attached to the heat exchanger for proper operation.

2) A surge diode is to protect the relay contacts from electrical arc welding. This will prevent the relay from welding. Heat exchanger is wire wound. They cause inductive current that could cause the relay to use and weld together. The surge diode will clamp the voltage to less than 328 Volts. This is the breakdown voltage of the 400V surge diode.

For information, the thermal fuse and the surge diode would cost less than USD$1/= each. It is good investment for a piece of mind.

 

 

Open Electricity Made Simple

13 April 2019

# Open electricity,  electricity plans,  retailers, Singapore Power, SP
 http://tinyurl.com/y39mwl6k

What is Open Electricity?

Simply, it is just a market for buying and selling of electricity;  hopefully,  the consumers can get cheaper electricity through competitive buying and selling of electricity.

In the older days,  electricity is always generated by PUB (former of SP Group) who will also deliver and sell the electricity to its consumers directly at fixed and regulated rates.  

About 20 years ago in 1998,  the Authority started the Singapore Electricity Pool (SEP) to "test" the workings of the market.  Real retail marketing started only in July 2001 when they allowed only those consumers having 2 MW or more power requirement to buy electricity from the retailers.  This market has since opened up to smaller consumers but only now,  they will open it to the 1.3 million households and small businesses in Singapore. 

There are about 35 Electricity Retailers in Singapore.  Many bloggers have blogged about how to choose the right electricity plan and the procedure to choose can be quite complex and complicated.   The many option available is confusing.  This article will try to make it simple.

What Being Offered?

There are not less than 10 different plans offered by each electricity retailer.   Basically, they can be divided in to 3 categories and in each category,  there may contain 3 or more plans depending on the length of the Contracts Period.  The 3 categories are

1.  The DOT Plan (DOT)

2.  The Fixed Plan (FFP)

3.  The Knight or the Owl Plan (POP)

What is the Best Plan?

This article will help those novices or layman to choose the right plan.    It is understand that 80% of Singapore's electricity consumers are in this category.

To choose the right plan,  one will need to know one's electricity usage pattern and the relationship between the electricity and the oil market.  The oil market will affect the SP’s tariff and also the electricity generating prices.   It can be very complex 

The following table briefly describes the 3 types of electricity plans:

Type of Plan	What's this?	If SP's Tariff		If Oil Price		Reason to Choose this plan
		Increases	Reduces	Increases	Reduces
Discount Off Tariff Plan (DOT)	Pegged to SP's tariff @ a specific discount rate over contract period	The rate will follow SP's tariff accordingly to the discounted rate		SP's tariff will increase or decrease with oil prices according to an approved  working  formula		The SP's tariff will try to track closely to the oil price
Fixed Price Plan (FPP)	Rate is fixed constant over the contract period	No effects.  Consumers will lose out to DOT plan   if SP's tariff falls below the fixed price				The future oil price will be higher than the present oil price
Peak/off peak plan (POP)	Rate is fixed for peak hours (7:00 am - 11:00 pm) and for off-peak hour between 11:00 pm to 7:00 am)	No effects. Same as FPP plan except the effective or average rate will become slightly cheaper if consumer uses all or more electricity during off peak hours;  otherwise,  the effective rate would become  higher than the FPP plan				Ditto same as FPP except you use more electricity at night and the effective or average rate will work out to be lower than FPP
Note 1:  There are more than 1 plan in each category;  for example, choose a 3 month plan if one has no confident

The table  looks rather complicated but the following flow chart should simplify the decision making process

 (double click to enlarge)

 Something about the Supply from Singapore Power (SP)

At the present moment,  it was reported that only about 18% to 20% of the SP’s consumers have switched supply to the private retailers.  Singapore has over 1.4 million consumer accounts. 

Many SP's consumers did not know that they are paying a higher price because SP has been asked to sign a Vesting Contract (VC) with about 6 major generating companies (Gencos) to ensure there will be competition among the 6 Gencos.  What SP's consumers are paying is a Vesting Contract Price (VCP)  worked out by SP once every quarterly.  One can read more about this VC and VCP in here.    The VCP inclined to be generally higher than the market electricity price.

The Advice

If one is not familiar with how the market works,   the best advise is to switch the supplier to the DOT plan.  This is because the DOT plan will track the SP’s tariff and one will pay a rate at a discount % from the SP’s tariff.  

Note 1:   Your Electricity Retailers should show you the hidden cost if any such as "Transmission Losses" or what not including additional security deposits.  If not shown or unknown to you,  you should request for them before you evaluate and sign at the bottom line;

Note 2:   Your Electricity Bills from the Electricity Retailers should show the unit of your monthly electricity consumption in Kwh (Kilo-Watt hours).  If it is not shown anywhere in the bills,  request for it.   This should also apply to the security deposits or any hidden cost that you have paid so that it is known to you for the computation and the comparison of the electricity bills.  In case of any doubt or problem,  seek the help from Singapore Power or EMA.    You can contact EMA @ https://www.ema.gov.sg/contact_us.aspx or Open Electricity Market @ https://www.openelectricitymarket.sg/contact-us

Why Singaporeans Cannot Get Cheaper Electricity from Singapore Power?

7 Apr 2019

# Singapore Power,  Open Electricity Market, Vesting Contracts,  Electricity Retailers, Gencos
http://tinyurl.com/y68n8rub

Unless one switches the electricity account from Singapore Power (SP) to other Electricity Retailers,  Singaporeans will not be able to get cheaper electricity rates.    This is because Singaporeans having SP's accounts are doing the Nation a service.   They are contributing about S$500 per household per annum for the past 4 years.

Why it is so?

Singapore has a small electricity market with just a few Power Generating Companies (Gencos).   To create an efficient and competitive electricity market in Singapore,  SP has been made to sign an agreement or contract with some six major Gencos in Singapore.  This contract is called “Vesting Contracts (VC)”.  It is for SP to buy electricity from the 6  Gencos at a fixed price called "Vesting Contract Price (VCP) to be worked out every quarterly according to a formula approved by the Electricity Market Authority of Singapore (EMA).   The  Vesting Contracts have no expiry date and can be terminated only by a 60-day notice according to the contracts agreement. 

It is understood in the effort to "privatise" further the supply of electricity,  SP will eventually relinquish its role as the supplier of electricity and retain the role only as infrastructure supporter. However,  it is also understood that there will always be a need for SP to be around to help existing consumers who would need SP's continued services.

What is this Vesting Contracts?

It is a contract signed between SP and the Gencos and facilitated by EMA.   This contract spelled out how SP must buy electricity from the Gencos at VCP for about 55% of Singapore’s electricity demand.   The method to work out this VCP will only be reviewed by EMA every 2 years.    SP will be based on the approved method to calculate the VCP  quarterly.  For readers who wanted to know more about how the VCP is set,  please refer to EMA’s website www.ema.gov.sg.

What’s the Purpose?

It was explained that one of the reasons for having the VC is to remove the “incentives” of the Gencos “fixing” the electricity market price by “short selling” the electricity supplies;   thereby pushing up the “pool price” in the Singapore Electricity Pool Market (SEPM) where electricity is sold at wholesale price..

How Vesting Contracts Work?

 

Before VP was introduced in 2004,  consumers will buy electricity from the electricity retailers at the pool prices or the Uniform Singapore Energy Price (USEP).   Say the consumers want to buy 3 MW,  they will approach Genco 1  who will supply only  2MW at pool price because that is all that he has had;  the consumers will have to buy the 3rd  MW from Genco 2 at a negotiated price.   There is no competition;  also, the pool price can be always"fixed" by the few players.    After VP was introduced,  the Gencos are bound by the VP to sell only 55% or 1 MW to the consumers.  The Gencos will have to compete to supply the 3rd MW at a competitive rate.  

Has it Worked?

It can be seen that this VCP method worked quite well before 2009 although it has benefited the  Gencos more with the pool price running below the VP.  Somehow the picture was a bit out of track after 2009 and it has gone awry after 2012.

The SP's consumers have been “subsidizing” the Gencos all these time after VC was introduced in 2004.  In the graph just shown above,   it can be seen that the orange patch is much larger than the green patch which denotes that the consumers were paying the Gencos more than the pool prices,

This article claimed that the VP in Singapore had made the Singapore consumers pay the extra $2.7 billion over the last 4 years. This worked out to be more than $ 500 per household per annum.  

Are there any other Better Methods?

1.  Breaking Up the Gencos into many smaller generating companies 

It was said this is not economical as the smaller generating companies do not have the economy of scale to provide cost-effective and cheaper electricity prices;

2.  Imposing a Price Cap in the Electricity Pool market  

When there are only a few market players,  imposing a price cap was viewed to hurt or delay the decision for the entrance of new Gencos;   the setting of the price cap can also be tricky and very often,  the prices are set higher than necessary. 

3. By breaking up the generation and forcing Gencos to lease out the capacity to several operators

EMA said this was not workable.

Any Other Improvements?

1.   Shortening the Vesting Contracts reviewing period of 2 years

The 2-year review is reasonable if we have a stable energy price over the 2 year period. This reviewing period should be shortened to 6 months or even less when the energy price is volatile especially when there is drastic change in the energy price.   SP should also be asked to shorten its time of working out the VCP.   The aim must be one that will ensure the VCP will always track closely to the market price.

2.  Allowing more parties to join the VP

The contract is presently signed only between the 6 major Gencos and SP.   It will make the system more transparent and the VCP more stable if there are more participants.  Don't forget that VCP can also be "fixed" by the few "interested parties".

3.   Not limiting the Generating Capacity 

EMA allowed Gencos to have excess generating capacities for reasons to get more users to participate in the LNG  Vesting Contracts (LNG VC). This LNG VC is another instrument used by EMA to ensure stable LNG supply.  However, there was a called for EMA to limit the generating capacities after the Hyflux's TuaSpring saga as it was viewed that the excess generating capacities is hurting the Gencos badly.     

It should be noted that the consumers will get better pricing with more competitions.   Furthermore,  Gencos are not small flies or companies;  there is no need to "spoon feed" them by over-regulation that will hurt the consumers pocket.  The free market should always rule. 

 What is the recourse for Consumers?

At present,   the VC only applies to SP's consumers who are non-contestable consumers.  It does not apply to contestable consumers who buy from Electricity Retailers. By 1 May 2019,  all electricity consumers in Singapore will have the option to switch their electricity retailer from SP to about 30 retailers in Singapore. 

If consumers think that they should not do the "National Service",  they can always switch to another retailer to become a contestable consumer.  

However,  those who have signed up to be contestable consumers should not be too happy because if SP cannot provide the 55% demand,  the contestable consumer might be called up to satisfy the 55% demand and pay electricity at the VCP level.