An electrifying start to Singapore’s power sector liberalisation has turned into a damp squib

TWO years since Singapore’s liberalised power sector was turned on its head by sky-high prices and a gas crunch that drove out some electricity retailers, some fractures remain, and regaining the shine of its early years has been elusive.

The once-zealous trading activity in Singapore’s electricity futures market has evaporated – as has the promise of much lower power bills. Back then, the potential savings of up to 30 per cent had lured half of 1.4 million households to dump the incumbent SP Services for another retailer under the city state’s Open Electricity Market (OEM).

The number of players in the residential segment has shrunk to nine; six of these are gentailers – power-generation companies or “gencos” which are also retailers. Amid the extraordinary swings in electricity prices of 2021, five independent retailers, including the biggest one, iSwitch, exited the market.