If Electricity Mkt is Liberalized, PAPee Cannot Make $ Woh!

[makapaaa]

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Electricity market liberalisation delayed by cost factor
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to Mr Andrew Seow's Forum Online letter last Thursday, 'When will consumers have a choice of electricity retailers?'.
The Energy Market Authority's (EMA) objective is still to fully liberalise the electricity market so consumers will be able to buy electricity from retailers of their choice. So far, we have not been able to do so because of the high cost of servicing small accounts.
For example, to enable retailers to sell directly to households, special meters which can record the usage of consumers at different periods are needed. But such meters cost more than 10 times as much as existing meters. For a typical household with a relatively small bill size, the savings from liberalisation would not outweigh this additional cost incurred.
This is why EMA has embarked on studies to develop a more cost-effective platform for full retail competition. We expect to finalise our study soon, and if the results are positive, we will work out a plan to roll out the necessary metering infrastructure and progressively liberalise the market over the next three to five years.
In the interim, EMA is exploring ways to get more benefits of competition to flow through to small consumers. Early next year, we will tender out a portion of the domestic electricity demand for the generation companies to bid on a competitive basis. With this tender, a portion of the tariff will be set by the tender price, thereby allowing more scope for competitive pricing of electricity for the benefit of households.
Chung Puay Noi (Ms)
Manager, Corporate Communications Department
Energy Market Authority

 

[counsel]

Mr Seow should have asked when will electricity rates come down

 

[johnny333]

Mr Seow should have asked when will electricity rates come down

No lah, more pertinent question is how much profit is "actually" being made and why PAP needs so much

 

[saratogas]

Oil prices came down (average $69 per barrel) but why electricity prices went up?

Cut from ST:

Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
Sep 30, 2009
Electricity prices to rise
Increase in rates due to higher fuel prices

SP Services said the average fuel price had gone up by about 21 per cent over the past three months to $92.03 per barrel.

Singapore uses natural gas to power 80 per cent of its electricity, the price is pegged to fuel oil as there is no natural gas price benchmark in Asia.

If we use natural gas then the increase in fuel has nothing to do with our electricity rite?

 

[halsey02]

Oil prices came down (average $69 per barrel) but why electricity prices went up?

Cut from ST:

Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
Sep 30, 2009
Electricity prices to rise
Increase in rates due to higher fuel prices

SP Services said the average fuel price had gone up by about 21 per cent over the past three months to $92.03 per barrel.

Singapore uses natural gas to power 80 per cent of its electricity, the price is pegged to fuel oil as there is no natural gas price benchmark in Asia.

If we use natural gas then the increase in fuel has nothing to do with our electricity rite?

So bloody conveninet....how much are we paying per...........( how do you measure gas) to the Indonesians or Malaysians for the Natural gas?

They can not be saying, pay me $10 and pump all you like, all day & non-stop right?...there was be a price!.

I am sure it is very, very , very much cheaper than on OIL....the profit margin must be obscenely wide...

 

[kingrant]

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Electricity market liberalisation delayed by cost factor
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>




<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to Mr Andrew Seow's Forum Online letter last Thursday, 'When will consumers have a choice of electricity retailers?'.
The Energy Market Authority's (EMA) objective is still to fully liberalise the electricity market so consumers will be able to buy electricity from retailers of their choice. So far, we have not been able to do so because of the high cost of servicing small accounts.
For example, to enable retailers to sell directly to households, special meters which can record the usage of consumers at different periods are needed. But such meters cost more than 10 times as much as existing meters. For a typical household with a relatively small bill size, the savings from liberalisation would not outweigh this additional cost incurred.
This is why EMA has embarked on studies to develop a more cost-effective platform for full retail competition. We expect to finalise our study soon, and if the results are positive, we will work out a plan to roll out the necessary metering infrastructure and progressively liberalise the market over the next three to five years.
In the interim, EMA is exploring ways to get more benefits of competition to flow through to small consumers. Early next year, we will tender out a portion of the domestic electricity demand for the generation companies to bid on a competitive basis. With this tender, a portion of the tariff will be set by the tender price, thereby allowing more scope for competitive pricing of electricity for the benefit of households.
Chung Puay Noi (Ms)
Manager, Corporate Communications Department
Energy Market Authority

"So far, we have not been able to do so because of the high cost of servicing small accounts. "

Imagine the day will come when large power companies tell you they wont supply to you because you are too small an account, and its overheads are just too high to sustain you, unless you pay a floor price! This is what can happen when we give up our public enterprises to the free market! How often have we been told that free mkt competition will drive down prices and pass on the savings to the consumers? Have you seen this happened with the public transport system? More competition means more fragmented markets which means reduced economy of scale, leading to higher overheads per account! In the US, where the power gen and distribution have gone to the free markets, there are dire stories of elderly families dying because they can't afford to pay tariffs for their life support equipment. We have public enterprises because of what economists call market failure. Do we have sufficient reasons to believe that the free market can take over now?

 

[kingrant]

If you live in a kampong and off an HDB estate, Citygas won't pipe to you. You have to buy bottled gas. Starhub won't cable to you unless you're prepared to put down a hefty charge for that final link. Once upon a recent time, the MRT line wont run to yr flat in Buangkok because there was not enough residents there to pay for a profitable ridership. The same thing is happening to LRT stations in Ponggol West which are growing molds because of insuffficient ridership. SBS avoids competition instead of meeting headlong with SMRT and won't run buses to where the SMRT has a train service. So much for competition! This is the world of fat cat capitalists and their profit motives. The govt seems all too eager to abdicate its social responsibility. What ever happened to 'maximum happiness for the max number of people'?