SINGAPORE – Measures have been put in place to safeguard Singapore’s vitality safety and assist customers deal with rising electrical energy prices, Second Minister for Commerce and Trade Tan See Leng mentioned in Parliament on Friday (March 4).
In his speech throughout the debate on the Ministry of Commerce and Trade’s finances, Dr Tan mentioned that however the measures in place, international electrical energy costs are prone to stay elevated as a result of Ukraine disaster.
He additionally reiterated how Singapore had been having fun with artificially low electrical energy costs for a number of years as a consequence of industrial choices taken by technology corporations right here.
An electrical energy worth correction is due to this fact inevitable.
The worldwide vitality scenario has precipitated and exacerbated this correction, Dr Tan mentioned.
“I perceive the price pressures confronted by households and companies. We are going to proceed to watch market developments and introduce additional measures, if needed, to help susceptible customers,” the minister mentioned.
The measures applied to safeguard vitality safety and mitigate rising prices embrace the Non permanent Retail Electrical energy Contracting Assist scheme to assist giant customers who usually are not capable of acquire retail contracts, launched final December.
Below the scheme, taking part gencos are ready to attract on the Power Market Authority’s Standby LNG Facility to supply month-to-month retail contracts to giant electrical energy customers.
That scheme has been prolonged to Might 2022, and can be prolonged additional if needed, Dr Tan added.
Considerations over Singapore’s vitality safety and growing electrical energy costs come as oil and fuel costs have been rising amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
World crude oil costs have surged past US$110 (S$150) a barrel, whereas the price of pure fuel has skyrocketed in Europe as a consequence of fears of a provide shock.
Provided that Singapore imports its vitality , with about 95 per cent of its electrical energy generated from pure fuel, it can’t be absolutely insulated from developments within the international vitality market, Dr Tan mentioned in a earlier Parliament sitting.
A number of energy retailers in Singapore closed store final yr amid volatility in wholesale electrical energy costs, together with the biggest unbiased and fourth largest retailer iSwitch.
About 9 per cent of all electrical energy client accounts have been affected by these exits, whereas others skilled untimely terminations of their contracts by one other two retailers.