Trials on new system of buying electricity start
later this year
By Margaret Perry, Channel NewsAsia |
Posted: 27 August 2008 2346 hrs
SINGAPORE: A new way of buying electricity is expected to result in
lower energy costs for home-owners.
To be on trial later this year, the Electricity Vending System
(EVS) is the latest stage in a S$3 million project. If successful,
it will be rolled out to all 1.2 million homes and small shops.
The EVS aims to bring down household energy bills by giving
customers the freedom to choose different electricity packages from
suppliers.
The EVS allows a home owner to buy electricity from vending
machines at the touch of a screen. Terminals will be placed at
convenience stores and customers will also be able to buy
electricity via the Internet and their mobile phones.
Once payment is made, the amount is instantly credited to the
user's home electricity monitor via wireless technology.
The monitor will beep when the credit runs low to warn
home-owners to top up their accounts.
And if the user registers their handphone number, an SMS will be
sent advising them to top up their accounts. This can be done via a
reply SMS.
One of the biggest ways consumers could save money through this
system is simply by being more aware of how much electricity they
use.
A consumer display unit will show exactly how much electricity
is being used at any one time. And, as soon as an appliance is
switched on, the number on the display unit jumps up.
For example, switching on a light bulb uses little energy but
turning on an electric kettle causes electricity usage to shoot
up.
Hence, users will be able to see instant savings when they turn
off appliances.
The Energy Market Authority (EMA), Singapore's energy market
regulator, expects electricity suppliers to offer different peak
and off-peak packages to suit the different lifestyles of
consumers.
1,000 volunteers from Marine Parade and West Coast will test out
the EVS. The trial at Marine Parade will start in November this
year while that at West Coast will start in February 2009. Each
trial will last for six months.
Seow Kang Seng, EMA's director of consumer safety and crisis
management, said: "In order to keep the costs low for the pilot
projects, we actually tried to look for places which have a good
mix of private housing, HDB housing and some small shops such that
we can get enough volunteers to take part and get a good mix."
Competition will keep prices down. Since 2003, about 10,000
large industrial users, which account for 75% of electricity
demand, have been able to negotiate their own electricity rates
with SP Services or private retailers such as Tuas Power Supply and
Keppel Electric.
But small consumers such as households have only been able to
buy electricity from SP Services at a flat rate through monthly
bills.
The new monitor for EVS costs more than the current electricity
meter, but this is expected to be less than the amount currently
spent on the billing, opening and closing of accounts and meter
reading, which would no longer be necessary.
EMA's Mr Seow said: "Currently we have these processes like
account opening, account closing, billing, meter readings, account
management processes. Under the EVS system, all these processes
will not be required."
If the trials are successful, all households will eventually be
switched to the EVS. But it will not be rolled out islandwide until
at least 2010.
- CNA/ir
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