Until June, when tariffs are revised again, households can expect to pay $5 to $54 less than they do now for their monthly power bills.

For homes, electricity tariffs will be 18.03 cents per kilowatt-hour, about 21 per cent less than the current quarter and the lowest rate since April 2005.

This is the second quarter in a row that tariffs have fallen.

The last spike was in October to December last year.

Households welcomed the news that electricity bills would continue to slide.

Businessman Lau Chin Loong, 45, who runs a tuition service and an education website, enjoyed a reduction of $20 to $30 in last month's bill because of the previous cut in tariffs and is looking forward to more.

'Any reduction is good news,' said Mr Lau, who lives in a five-room flat with his wife, three children and a maid. He said his business had not yet been affected by the downturn.

Another piece of good news for consumers is that electricity price fluctuations will be less volatile from July, because of a new formula that the regulators will be using to set tariffs.

Instead of basing them on the average oil price for a month, they will base them on a three-month average. This reduces the impact of any wild swings that prices go through from month to month.

Read the full story in today's edition of The Straits Times.