By Jessica Jaganathan
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore has introduced further measures to help consumers cope with gas supply disruptions and volatile electricity prices, including aiding large businesses which are facing difficulty renewing their gas contracts or getting new ones.
Continued disruptions to piped natural gas supply amid upstream production issues in Indonesia’s West Natuna gas fields, low gas landing pressure from South Sumatra and high global gas prices are driving up volatility in Singapore’s wholesale electricity market, the country’s energy regulator said on Monday.
To help large consumers such as businesses who have not been able to obtain retail contracts or renew existing ones, Energy Market Authority (EMA) said it was launching a support scheme by working with power generation companies and electricity retailers to offer them one-month fixed price plans for January.
The power generation companies will be able to draw on EMA’s standby fuel facility to generate electricity, reducing the risk of supply disruptions from piped natural gas, EMA said.
Three electricity retailers are participating in the scheme and have offered about 300 megawatts of power capacity, it said.
The action by the regulator was seen by analysts as unusual as Singapore, which imports nearly all its energy needs, is one of the few Asian countries to have a fully liberalised electricity market.
The latest measures follow some announced in October, including providing standby reserves to safeguard energy security as surging global gas prices roiled the city-state’s electricity market.
In Monday’s announcement, EMA said it has also established a standby liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, which power generation firms can draw from to generate electricity when supplies are disrupted.
It did not give further details on the LNG facility.
In addition, EMA said it has directed utility firms to maintain enough fuel for power generation based on their available generation capacity, from January to March.
It said it would put in place measures to better manage the gas network pressure amid ongoing piped gas supply disruptions from Indonesia, but did not elaborate on the measures.
“The world is undergoing an energy crunch and electricity prices are rising in many countries,” said Singapore’s second minister for trade and industry, Tan See Leng.
“We cannot insulate Singaporeans completely from the higher prices. But we can and will continue to ensure that consumers have access to the electricity supply and plans they need,” Tan said.
(Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
