SINGAPORE: Households in Singapore will see a 10.4% decrease in the electricity tariff from October to December due to lower energy costs.
The household electricity tariff will be at 28.59 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), down from 31.91 cents per kWh in the previous quarter.
Grid operator SP Group said in a statement on Sept 30 that the average monthly electricity bill for families living in Housing Board four-room flats will decrease by $12.99 before goods and services tax (GST).
The overall electricity tariff before GST, including tariffs for non-households, will decrease by an average of 10.6% or 3.32 cents per kWh, compared with the previous quarter.
In a separate statement, piped town gas provider City Energy said the gas tariff for households will decrease by 8.6%, from 23.48 cents per kWh in the previous quarter to 21.45 cents per kWh from Oct 1 to Dec 31.
This is due to lower fuel costs than in the previous quarter, it said.
SP Group and City Energy review the electricity and gas tariffs every quarter based on guidelines set by regulator EMA.
Electricity and gas tariffs can fluctuate each quarter owing to volatile global fuel prices driven by geopolitical factors.
The tariffs are largely determined based on gas prices in the first 2½ months of the preceding quarter. Thus, changes in fuel prices in a quarter will only show up in the electricity tariff in the next quarter.
Rystad Energy senior consultant David Chew told The Straits Times that the decrease in the tariff was in line with his expectations and “some welcome good news for Singaporeans”.
“July and August saw much lower oil prices versus the previous quarter and is the main driver behind the falling electricity tariff,” he said.
However, he noted that he is expecting a single-digit increase in the tariff in the first quarter of 2027, as rising tensions in the Middle East drove oil prices higher in mid-September.
Sharad Somani, partner and head of infrastructure for Asia-Pacific at KPMG, said that unless there is a renewed downward trend in oil prices in the coming months, a further reduction in the electricity tariff is unlikely.
He said the reduction in the tariff for the fourth quarter “was largely expected as we observed the softening of Brent crude oil prices over the last three months”.
“This adjustment reflects how the global energy market dynamics are effectively reflected in the Singapore electricity regulatory regime,” Somani added.
Since the outbreak of the Iran war, more households have taken up fixed-price electricity plans that lock in the rate at which consumers buy electricity for the duration of a contract.
The proportion of households on fixed-price plans rose from around 36.6% on Feb 1 to 38.4% on Sept 1.
The share of households buying electricity from SP Group under the regulated tariff fell from 63.4% to 61.6% over the same period.
Less than 0.1% of Singapore households buy electricity at wholesale prices.
In the week of Sept 13 to 19, the weekly Uniform Singapore Energy Price (USEP), a measure of the wholesale cost of electricity, hit $486.21 per megawatt-hour (MWh) – the highest level so far in 2026, before easing to $461.23 per MWh in the week of Sept 20 to 26 – the second-highest level recorded so far in 2026.
The USEP has no impact on the electricity tariff, but fuel cost fluctuations that affect the USEP also impact the tariff.
Imported natural gas accounts for about 95% of Singapore’s electricity generation, and its price is largely tied to market prices.
Between July and September, the electricity tariff was 17% higher than the previous quarter, while the town gas tariff increased by 7.1%, owing to rising prices of natural gas amid the Middle East conflict. - The Straits Times/ANN
