Immigrating to Singapore and focusing on life in Singapore: On October 26, Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry, S Iswaran, announced that Singapore's electricity market will be fully liberalized by 2018, allowing all consumers, including households, to choose their own electricity retailers.
On Monday, the Energy Market Authority also released two consultation papers. One is to prepare for future power generation investments in Singapore, seeking feedback from the industry. The second is regarding a proposed secondary natural gas trading market, which would allow natural gas buyers and sellers to conduct short-term domestic trades.
S Iswaran first proposed the establishment of a secondary natural gas trading market at last year's Singapore International Energy Week, noting that it would enable domestic market pricing and help natural gas users supplement their medium-to-long-term supplies with short-term supplies. The market will also consolidate Singapore's position as a hub for liquefied natural gas and natural gas trading activities, and lay the foundation for the future development of a natural gas futures market.
S Iswaran stated at the Singapore International Energy Week that the Energy Market Authority is working with industry stakeholders to achieve full liberalization of the retail electricity market by the first half of 2018. This will allow 1.3 million consumers, most of whom are households, to have flexible choices in their electricity consumption.
Since 2001, the Energy Market Authority has gradually liberalized the electricity market. 33,000 commercial and industrial users with a monthly electricity consumption of at least 2 MWh have already participated in this contestable market, purchasing electricity directly from retailers instead of being subject to the regulated tariffs of SP Services.