Which Electricity Retailer Is The Cheapest In Singapore?

This article originally appeared on the Seedly Blog.

 TL;DR: Ultimately Singaporeans will get cheaper electrical bills (As of 3 July 2018)

• Starting 1st April 2018, 108,000 households and 9,500 business in Jurong will get the chance to choose an electricity retailer that best suits their needs.
• Average electricity usage has a declining trend since last year.
• There are a total of 14 players and 3 most distinct types of price plans available.
• For Fixed Price Plan:
  Sun Electric has a 3 months contract plan
  Best Electricity is the cheapest for 6 months.
  Sembcorp Power is the cheapest for a 1-year contract.
  Geneco is the cheapest for a 2-year contract.
  Ohm Electricity has a No Contract Plan for this category.
• For Discount Off Tariff Plan:
  Geneco has the cheapest 3 months contract plan.
  iSwitch is the cheapest when it comes to contracts more than 6 months.
  Sembcorp Power is the cheapest when it comes to 1-year contract while Best Electricity, for a 2 years contract.
• For peak and off-peak plans: PacificLight dominates this category.

How much Singaporeans spend on electricity bill every month?

Singaporeans are subjected to Electricity Tariff, which is regulated by the Energy Market Authority (EMA).

This Electricity Tariff is updated every quarterly, and as of Q3 2018, which is from 1 July 2018 to 30 September 2018, the Electricity Tariff is at 23.65 cents/kWh (25.31 cents/kWh with GST)

The Electricity Tariff is made up of 4 components:

• Market Administration and Power System Operation Fee – 0.05 cents/kWh
  Paid to Energy Company and Power System Operator. Reviewed annually.
• Market Support Services Fee (MSS) – 0.40 cents/kWh
  Reviewed annually.
• Network Cost – 5.31 cents/kWh
  Reviewed annually.
• Energy Cost – 17.89 cents/kWh
  Reviewed quarterly.

The sum of the 4 components makes up your Electricity Tariff, which will be what consumer pays for their monthly electricity bill.

Average Electricity Consumption And Electricity Bill Of Singaporeans

To give a good judgment on how the new scheme of using private electricity retailers will affect our electricity bills, we went on to find out on average, how much Singaporeans spend on electricity.

First, we find out the amount of electricity an average Singaporean consumes:

Credit: SP Group

Now that we have a good estimation of how much electricity (in kWh) is being consumed for each property type, we went on to give an estimation of the cost (inclusive of GST):

Open Electricity Market in Jurong

As of 1st April 2018, households and businesses in Jurong will have the option to purchase electricity from a retailer. This reduces the reliant on SP group (SP Services) for electricity, where cost is based on a regulated tariff that changes every quarter.

Should this be a success, Singaporeans may go under this new initiative.

To kick-start this new initiative, 14 electricity retailers are authorised to start offering their plans for Jurong.

The 14 retailers are:

• Best Electricity Supply
• Diamond Electric Merchants
• Hyflux Energy
• iSwitch
• Keppel Electric
• Ohm Energy
• PacificLight Energy
• Red Dot Power
• Sembcorp Power
• Senoko Energy Supply
• Geneco by Seraya Energy
• Sun Electric Power
• Sunseap Energy
• Tuas Power Supply

To make comparison easier for everyone, we are going to focus on what matters the most, residential plans.

Residential plans offered by electricity retailers

Brushing away all the marketing gimmick and getting down to business, most electricity retailer has 3 main types of plan for the Singaporeans.

• Fixed Price Plan

  Pay a fixed rate throughout your contract

• Discount Off Regulated Tariff Plan

  Enjoy percentage off the Regulated Tariff (updated quarterly), throughout your contract

• Peak and Off-peak Plan

  Pays more for electricity during the peak period.
  Pays lesser for electricity during the off-peak period.

The Ultimate Comparison: Electricity Retailers in Singapore (Fixed Price Plan)

With 14 retailers, choosing one can be quite a chore, but we are here to help by comparing all the plans they have for households.

For easy reference, the SP Regulated Tariff Rate is at $0.253/kWh this quarter. All the fixed rates that private retailers provide is cheaper than the current tariff.

• Sun Electric has the cheapest 3 months plan.
• Best Electricity has the cheapest 6 months plan.
• Sembcorp Power is the most economical when it comes to 1 year.
• Geneco is the most economical when it comes to 2 years at S$0.1599/kWh
• Ohm Electricity actually provides a No Contract plan at $0.1535/kWh with a monthly fixed cost of $10.
• Senoko Energy, Sun Electric and Sunseap only does Discount Off Regulated Tariff Plan (refer to the definition at the top).

The Ultimate Comparison: Electricity Retailers in Singapore (Discount Off Regulated Tariff Plan)

If you are not a fan of fixed rate and would like to add a bit of spice to life, “betting” on electricity tariff can be the new thing for you.

Discount Off Regulated Tariff Plans charge by taking away a percentage of the cost from your usual electricity tariff. Hence, it is pegged to the electricity tariff which changes every quarterly.

• For short-term 3 months contract, Geneco is the cheapest with 23.8% off.
• iSwitch is the cheapest for 6 months contract with 23% discount off tariff, followed by Ohm Electricity.
• For 1 year contract, Sembcorp Power is the cheapest with 21% off.
• As for 2 Years Contract Best Electricity the cheapest at 23% off.

The Ultimate Comparison: Electricity Retailers in Singapore (Peak and off-peak plans)

Assuming peak period is defined as the time where most Singaporeans are at home. Hence, if you have working hours which are away from the norm, this might be the plan for you given that your electricity usage will be during off-peak.

We see less company is having the Peak and off-peak plans mainly due to possible extra meter needed to be fixed at the household to monitor the electrical activity.

• PacificLight charges the cheapest for Peak period whereas Keppel Electric is cheapest when it comes to Off-peak.
• Consumers should look at their electric usage timing closer should they want to be on a peak and off-peak plan.
• Do take note that Geneco and PacificLight offer peak and off-peak discount off tariff plans which might be attractive to consumers.
• Should a consumer chooses to go with Peak and Off-peak plan, installing a smart meter is necessary to track your electricity consumption every half an hour.
• The meter installation fee costs $40 (before GST).

Further Reading:

Transmission Loss Factors (TLF)

• Scaling factors that are already applied at the metering point to account for network and transformer losses.
• Residential customers fall under the 230.400V category when it comes to TLF
• SP Group should have already adjusted this to derive the usage of consumers, hence, private retailers will simply take the information from SP Group and bill accordingly.

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