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1.
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How is liberalisation of the electricity market implemented in Singapore?
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The Singapore electricity retail market will be liberalised in 3 different phases. The first two phases of retail competition involves the introduction of retail contestability to large industrial and commercial consumers, whose total consumption makes up about 75% of total electricity sales in Singapore.
There were about 5,000 consumers with an average monthly consumption of 20,000kWh and above who were classified contestable consumers in Phase 1 of the retail market liberalisation. This phase of the retail liberalisation had been completed in end Sep 03. Phase 2 retail market liberalisation has commenced in Dec 03. It comprises another 5,000 consumers with an average monthly consumption of 10,000kWh and above.
Retail contestability will eventually be introduced to the remaining domestic and small non-domestic consumers (with average consumption less than 10,000kWh per month) under the third phase of retail liberalisation. The number of consumers in the third phase is about 1 million, but in terms of electricity sales, they represent only about 25% of total sales in Singapore. Phase 3 of the retail market liberalisation is currently under study. EMA is currently embarking on the Electricity Vending System (EVS) Pilot Project to test the concept of integrating the existing e-payment system with smart metering system to enable this remaining 1 million consumers to purchase any electricity at competitive prices, from any retailer of their choice.
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2.
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What is an Electricity Vending System?
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An Electricity Vending System (EVS) is an innovative concept of integrating the state-of-the-art smart metering technologies and the existing electronic payment (e-payment) infrastructure and will enable electricity consumers to purchase any amount of electricity at competitive prices, from any electricity retailer of their choice.
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3.
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What are the schedules for Phase 1 and 2 retail market liberalisation?
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Phase 1 and 2 liberalisation are being implemented in batches based on electricity consumption. The schedules for Phase 1 and 2 liberalisation are as follows:
| Retail Market Liberalisation |
Batch No. |
Contestability Commencement Date |
Criteria |
| Phase 1 |
1 |
1 Jun 03 |
Remaining high-tension consumers as of 1 Dec 02 |
| Phase 1 |
2 |
24 Aug 03 |
Low-tension consumers with average monthly consumption of 39,000kWh and above as of 1 Dec 02. |
| Phase 1 |
3 |
28 Sep 03 |
Remaining low-tension consumers with average monthly consumption of 20,000kWh and above as of 1 Dec 02.
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| Phase 2 |
1 |
21 Dec 03 |
Low-tension consumers with average monthly consumption of 26,000kWh and above and remaining high-tension consumers as of 1 Aug 03 |
| Phase 2 |
2 |
28 Mar 04 |
Low-tension consumers with average monthly consumption of 16,500kWh and above as of 1 Aug 03 |
| Phase 2 |
3 |
26 Jun 05 |
Low-tension consumers with average monthly consumption of 13,500kWh and above as of 1 Aug 03 |
| Phase 2 |
4 |
9 Oct 05 |
Low-tension consumers with average monthly consumption of 11,500kWh and above as of 1 Aug 03 |
| Phase 2 |
5 |
12 Feb 06 |
Low-tension consumers with average monthly consumption of 10,000kWh and above as of 1 Aug 03 |
| Full Retail Contestability |
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Under Study |
All remaining consumers |
Meanwhile all consumers (except for master-metered account holders, and those whose premises are being used as serviced apartment facilities or leased to other persons) who meet the contestability criteria and would like to be classified as contestable before the release of the contestability commencement dates for the next few batches may apply to SP Services.
Master-metered account holders may apply to EMA to be classified as a contestable consumer if they fulfill the contestability criteria.
For more information on the criteria for contestability, please refer to question 3 of FAQ category: Classification of Contestability.
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4.
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Why is EMA implementing the Electricity Vending System project?
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Since 2001, EMA have liberalized the power generation and retail market in stages. This is to provide more competitive pricing and choices to consumers and businesses. Since 2003, about 10,000 large consumers, accounting for 75% of total electricity demand, have already become contestable. This means that retailers compete to sell electricity to these consumers.
To extend the benefits of contestability to household consumers, EMA is investigating the feasibility of implementing the EVS to allow household consumers to purchase electricity from retailers of their choice.
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5.
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When will the EVS project be completed?
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The EVS project is expected to be completed by second half of 2009.
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