Question

Mr Don Wee: To ask the Minister for Trade and Industry whether the Ministry will consider tiered electricity pricing for residential households, with progressively higher prices for subsequent tiers, to encourage households to use electricity more efficiently.

Written Answer by Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong

1. To encourage households to use electricity efficiently, electricity should be priced to reflect its full cost of production and delivery. This is our current approach, under which households pay for what they consume.

2. Tiered electricity pricing may have inadvertent implications. For example, a multi-generational family will have to pay a higher rate if they live under the same roof versus living in separate homes.

3. We encourage households to use electricity more prudently in other ways:

  a. SP Services has been progressively replacing households’ analogue (cumulative) electricity meters with advanced electricity meters, which allow households to track their electricity consumption through the SP Utilities Mobile App. This will help households better understand their electricity usage patterns and encourage them to be more energy efficient.

  b. NEA provides online resources to help households to adopt energy-saving habits. Households can also use the online Life Cycle Cost Calculator to select the most energy-efficient home appliances based on their life-cycle costs.

  c. NEA and PUB launched the Climate Friendly Households Programme in November 2020 to encourage the 1-room to 3-room HDB households to switch to energy- and water-efficient appliances. Each eligible household can redeem e-vouchers to offset their cost of purchasing LED lights, energy-efficient refrigerators, and water-efficient shower fittings.

4. We encourage all Singaporeans to adopt energy conservation as a way of life – from designing an energy-efficient home, to choosing energy-efficient appliances and adopting energy-saving habits.