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SINGAPORE: Nearly half of 1.4 million homes in Singapore have switched to buying electricity from a retailer, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) said on Thursday (Nov 26).
Since the nationwide launch of the Open Electricity Market (OEM) two years ago, about 48 percent of all households have switched to a retailer at the end of October, the authority said in a press release.
This compares with around 40 percent at the end of August last year.
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As of October 31, Keppel Electric has the highest share of residential consumers with 23.4 percent, followed by Geneco with 21.0 percent.
iSwitch, Tuas Power, and Sembcorp Power are the next largest retailers with 13.4%, 13.0% and 9.0%.
(Chart: EMA)
The other seven retailers, which have a combined market share of 20.2 percent, are: Best Electricity, Diamond Electric, PacificLight Energy, Ohm Energy, Senoko Energy, Sunseap Energy and Union Power.
The OEM zonal rollout began in November 2018. In May of the following year, all consumers were able to switch to a retailer if they wanted to.
As most consumers signed two-year contracts from the start of the OEM, many would have started receiving notifications from their retailer about supply agreements after their contract ended, EMA said.
Retailers must notify their customers at least 10 business days prior to the end of their contract.
The authority reminded consumers to be vigilant for such notifications from their retailers.
CONSUMER SATISFACTION SURVEY
Nine out of 10 customers who switched to purchasing electricity from a retailer were “satisfied” with the service provided by their retailers, according to a consumer satisfaction survey conducted by EMA on an ongoing basis to “measure the service performance” of OEM retailers. .
The latest survey, which surveyed more than 7,000 households, showed that the top two reasons respondents renewed with their retailer were attractive pricing plans (53 percent) and satisfactory service provided during the previous contract (57 percent). ).
The survey was based on 5,700 responses from residential consumers who switched to an electricity retailer from November 2019 to May 2020, and 1,600 residential consumers who renewed with their retailer from January 2020 to June 2020.
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Roughly half of the 1,600 respondents who renewed their contract with their retailer between January and June this year have compared pricing plans with other retailers before doing so.
“It is important for consumers to compare retailers’ pricing plans and ratings when signing or renewing their contract,” said EMA CEO Ngiam Shih Chun.
Consumers should visit the OEM website to compare the standard pricing plans of all OEM retailers, he added.
Retailers were also rated based on their customers’ responses to the consumer satisfaction survey.
Diamond Energy Merchants topped the table with the maximum score of five stars, while Keppel Electric and Geneco occupied the bottom two positions with 3.5 stars each.
Ohm Energy, Senoko Energy, Tuas Power Supply, and Union Power received 4.5 stars each, while Best Electricity Supply, iSwitch, PacificLight Energy, Sembcorp Power, and Sunseap Energy each received four stars.
Four of the 12 retailers improved their ratings, namely Best Electricity, PacificLight Energy, Senoko Energy, and Sunseap Energy.
