Electricity Prices on the Rise

As a resource-constrained country, Singapore relies on imported natural gas for around 95% of our electricity supply. This means that energy developments around the world will naturally have an impact on Singapore’s electricity prices, hence higher fuel prices globally will push up domestic electricity prices.

Since September 2021, the world has been facing an energy crunch. Global gas prices increased significantly due to unanticipated high demand from post-pandemic economic recovery and tight gas supply. This energy crunch has been worsened with the protracted Russia-Ukraine conflict giving rise to gas supply disruptions. Countries going into the winter months are also sourcing for gas supply for heating purposes and this seasonal increase in energy demand has driven up fuel prices as well.

Most consumers in Singapore are not affected by the price volatility as they are on retail contracts (i.e. fixed price plans or discount off tariff plans) with retailers or the regulated tariff with SP Group. However, consumers can expect to see higher prices when they renew or enter into new contracts, as these now reflect the higher cost of fuel and electricity generation.

Stabilising the Energy Market

To enhance Singapore’s energy security and resilience, EMA put in place a set of measures in October 2021. This helped to ensure that Singapore’s overall gas supplies remain sufficient during this global energy crunch, but we will need to brace for the winter months when energy demand picks up and supply shortages continue to be exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine. In view of the ongoing volatilities in global energy markets and the uncertainties with the protracted Russia-Ukraine conflict, EMA has extended the energy security measures until 31 March 2023. These measures include:

• Establishing a Standby LNG facility (SLF), which gencos can draw from to generate electricity when their natural gas supplies are disrupted.
• Directing gencos to maintain sufficient fuel for power generation, based on their available generation capacity for power generation. This is in addition to the existing requirement of having fuel reserves that gencos are required to maintain under their licences.
• Modifying Market Rules to enable EMA to direct gencos to generate electricity using the gas from the SLF pre-emptively, if there are potential shortages in energy supply in the Singapore Wholesale Electricity Market (SWEM), to maintain power system security and reliability.

Households and businesses with an average monthly electricity consumption of below 4,000 kWh may either purchase electricity from retailers under retail price plans, or from SP Group at the regulated tariff. This arrangement is intended to protect small consumers who have less bargaining power to negotiate with gencos and retailers for better retail prices compared to the regulated tariff.

Some large consumers (those with average monthly consumption of at least 4,000 kWh) have been transferred to buying electricity at wholesale prices via SP Group, either due to their retailer exiting the market or had faced difficulty in securing or renewing their contract. Under this default arrangement, SP Group purchases electricity on these consumers’ behalf from the SWEM at the prevailing wholesale electricity price (WEP). SP Group then passes through the WEP to consumers.

Period	Average WEP ($/MWh)
October 2021	486.83
November 2021	343.02
December 2021	474.07
January 2022	483.09
February 2022	260.49
March 2022	307.45
April 2022	366.29
May 2022	309.87
June 2022	215.66
July 2022	361.79
August 2022	231.37
September 2022	232.13
October 2022	255.47
November 2022	276.43
December 2022	209.09
January 2023	219.13
February 2023	222.53

Please visit the Energy Market Company’s website for historical data for WEP.

Support for Large Consumers

EMA has made SLF available so that retailers may offer one-month fixed price retail contracts to large consumers. This is also known as the Temporary Electricity Contracting Support Scheme (TRECS). Where consumers face difficulty securing term retail contracts and wish to seek relief from the volatility of WEP, TRECS will continue to support industry needs as the fallback option until 31 March 2023.

EMA has also worked with Keppel Electric Pte Ltd and Sembcorp Power Pte Ltd to offer longer-term fixed price plans for consumers with average monthly consumption from 4,000kWh to 50,000kWh. These plans come with a contract duration ranging from 6 months to 3 years.

Several retailers are also offering price plans with a significant fixed price component for larger consumers.

More information on these electricity contracting options can be found here.

Should large consumers face difficulty in securing a retail contract, they may contact EMA at ema_enquiry@ema.gov.sg for further assistance.

Please refer to our FAQs for further information on electricity prices and energy security.