Singapore's electricity retail market to be fully opened to competition by 2018

SINGAPORE'S electricity market will be fully liberalised by 2018, with all consumers including households being able to choose their own electricity retailers, said Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) S Iswaran on Monday.

The Energy Market Authority (EMA) is working with industry stakeholders to fully open the electricity retail market to competition in the second half of 2018, Mr Iswaran said at the Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW). This will enable 1.3 million more consumers, mainly households, to have flexibility and choice in their electricity consumption, he added.

EMA has progressively liberalised the electricity retail market since 2001, and some 33,000 commercial and industrial consumers with power consumption above 2MWh are already participating in the contestable market, purchasing electricity directly from an electricity retailer instead of remaining on the regulated tariff with SP Services.

The regulatory body also issued two consultation papers on Monday. One is to prepare for future power generation investments in Singapore, and will seek industry feedback regarding additional information that EMA hopes to put out on the long term outlook of the energy market, proposed enhancements to the regulatory approval process for new and existing generation assets to give greater visibility on the capacity coming on stream, and a proposed framework to allocate land for new generation assets.

The second is on the proposed secondary gas trading market for gas buyers and sellers to trade gas on a short term basis domestically.

Mr Iswaran, who first announced the setting up of the secondary gas trading market at SIEW last year, said it will allow the price discovery for gas in the domestic market, and help gas users complement their portfolio of long and medium term gas supplies with short term supplies. The market will also enhance Singapore's position as a hub for LNG and gas trading activities, and pave the way for the country to establish a gas futures market in future, he added.

The consultation paper will seek industry feedback on a proposed market design and implementation roadmap, as well as the establishment of an industry working group to decide on the details for implementing the secondary gas trading market.

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