Comments on: Singapore Number 2 in Raising Electricity Tariffs

By: observer

observer — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 07:38:20 +0000

May be a bit late to weigh in, but…

Price of gas in Singapore is contractually linked to the price of HSFO. It is by formula and it cannot be changed until the contracts expire. The linkage is reasonably common and is neither good nor bad. It looks bad when oil goes up. It looks good when it goes down. For a long time, oil was pretty low….

CLP has a completely different energy mix, with older nuclear and coal plants (highly depreciated) as well as gas (which is also linked to oil). CLP and HKE have different energy mixes (note that CLP and HKE have different situations.) CLP and HKE and Singapore’s electricity sector have completely different investment profiles and energy security priorities and options, including project timing, reserve margin and so forth, as well.

By: 1234

1234 — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:23:54 +0000

haha…nope. but i have friends at powergrid who explain have explained to me the reality of the situation

By: haha

haha — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 06:21:24 +0000

1234, you must be from SP Services!

By: 1234

1234 — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 05:38:16 +0000

i will reiterate…SP services is not at the top of the food chain (nor anywhere near the top), it just charges consumers whatever EMA states. even the proportion of the charges that SP keeps to maintain the grid, etc is regulated by EMA. this whole thing is EMA’s doing and i think they should sort themselves out cos they’re doing a bad job.

By: XX

XX — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 02:10:02 +0000

excuse me, it is better than world class.

By: to 1234

to 1234 — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 01:34:19 +0000

goes to show how vulnerable we all are. since both ema and sp are players at the top of the food chain, i’m sure they can do something to pre-empt the problem and not just sit there. now that the problem has happened, instead of fixing it, they are still sitting there, at best giving lame excuses eg it’s ‘standard practice’ to use oil prices. or maybe they’re so incompetent to think that there’s no problem at all? then why pay them world-class salaries to just sit there?

By: 1234

1234 — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 01:06:34 +0000

for those who are still unclear, SP services does not set the price. the energy mkt authority (EMA) does so. SP services only collects the money, pay back the generation companies (gencos) and pay SP powergrid (who runs the transmission and distribution network).
i think some many Singaporeans are pointing their fingers at the wrong person =)

By: Rei

Rei — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 04:32:21 +0000

whatever it is, many people cannot afford to pay the increase. im guessing many affluent SINs drop by this website but i worry for lower income families or single old aged folk. the subsidies given to them arent that great either. AND my GRC just lost over $2m in mini bonds.jus wana say dats $$ dat can be better spent!

By: whizzard

whizzard — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 12:33:43 +0000

The way I see it, its counter-intuitive that electricity tariffs have to be hiked substantially (+21%) when HK reduced its tariff and the price of commodities in general continued its downtrend.

I don’t subscribe to the argument that it is for maximising profits. What I would hazard a guess is that they could have entered into a financial hedge at the height of the rally in commodities prices earlier and now that commodities prices have dropped, they found themselves in an unfortunate situation where they have locked in at higher prices hence the pass through to consumers.

We will never know unless the full details of SP Services’ financial statements are published, I guess.

By: adiemuso

adiemuso — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 02:01:53 +0000

well..it cant be changed…we operate on capitalism…

hopefully, the profit being generated are being pumped back into the economy vis a vis green projects, cleaner energy, subsidies for needies.

in my point of view, we are seriously lacking in the clean and green aspects. we can definitely do much more.