More businesses to gain from liberalisation of power market

MORE businesses will be able to buy power directly from electricity retailers or the wholesale electricity market from next year, as Singapore gradually liberalises its electricity market.

The contestability threshold, the point at which a consumer can buy from electricity retailers rather than through SP services at a regulated tariff, will be lowered to 2MW an hour from July 1, 2015. This will benefit up to 10,000 more commercial and industrial consumers, the second minister for Home Affairs and Trade and Industry S. Iswaran said.

This threshold has been progressively lowered. It went from 10MWh to 8MWh on April 1 this year, and to 4MWh on Oct 1. The changes have benefited some 15,000 businesses.

Mr Iswaran also announced a S$25 million programme to develop technologies to enhance the overall stability of the power system so that it supports the integration of intermittent solar energy. The government is aggregating solar demand across government buildings and spaces to yield cost savings from economies of scale through the SolarNova programme. The first tender for this will be launched early next year.