Longer-term electricity contracts for businesses to counter price volatility

To counter the increased volatility in wholesale electricity prices due to the current global energy crunch, electricity retailers here will offer more long-term fixed-price contracts for business consumers at competitive rates.

This is to help business consumers who have faced difficulties in securing fixed-price electricity contracts, said the Energy Market Authority (EMA) in a statement yesterday.

Electricity retailers Sembcorp Power and Keppel Electric are offering such plans to consumers with an average monthly consumption of 4 megawatt-hours (MWh) to 50 MWh. This is about 10 to 131 times the average monthly power consumption of a four-room Housing Board flat. Large electricity users in Singapore include shopping malls and manufacturing facilities.

These new price plans come with a longer contract duration, ranging from six months to three years, with the electricity rate for the two-year and three-year contracts priced at 25 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

This is lower than the electricity rate under the Temporary Electricity Contracting Support Scheme (Trecs) of 39.9 cents per kWh for March.

To protect businesses from the recent volatility in wholesale electricity prices, EMA launched Trecs last December. Under it, commercial users can pay for electricity at a capped rate.

The contracting window for these contracts is now open. "We encourage eligible consumers without a retail plan to consider these contracts for greater price certainty," said EMA in its statement.

Contracting details for Trecs and other retail contract options for April will be made available on EMA's website at https://go.gov.sg/electricity-contracting-options next week. Consumers facing difficulty securing an electricity contract may contact EMA at ema_enquiry@ema.gov.sg for assistance.