Protection of Interests of Sub-accounts in Enhanced Central Intermediary Scheme for Excess Solar Power Flowed Back to Grid

14 Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui asked the Minister for Trade and Industry with regard to the Enhanced Central Intermediary Scheme (a) what are the regulations or rules that protect the interests of sub-accounts who wish to recover excess solar generation power that flows back to the grid; and (b) what are the potential workarounds to resolve constraints faced by sub-accounts in receiving payments for exported solar electricity from the master account holder.

The Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Ms Low Yen Ling) (for the Minister for Trade and Industry): Mr Speaker, the Enhanced Central Intermediary Scheme, or ECIS, allows contestable consumers with small solar panel systems, that is, less than 10 Megawatts of Alternating Current, to sell their excess electricity into the wholesale electricity market through SP Services as an intermediary.

Sub-accounts can do so through the master account, after fulfilling their demand and the aggregated onsite demand of the master account and other tenants. The sub-accounts will need to enter into commercial agreements with the master account to share revenues from the sale of electricity to the grid.

While there are no specific rules or regulations governing such commercial agreements between the master and sub-accounts, the Government encourages all parties to be fair and transparent, and we support industry-led efforts in promoting best practices.

The Government will also continue to review ways to incentivise and promote more solar adoption, including co-creating solutions with private developers and industry players, as well as working with stakeholders to address regulatory challenges and maximise solar energy adoption in Singapore.

Mr Speaker: Mr Edward Chia.

Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui (Holland-Bukit Timah): Thank you, Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister of State for her reply. Can the Minister of State elaborate on what are the constraints faced by sub-account holders in selling back the excess energy to master account holders, especially when there are now technical solutions such as bidirectional private meters?

Secondly, can MTI consider mandating master account holders to compensate sub-account holders through either EMA's framework or a fair tenancy industry code of conduct framework? Because it is important to help businesses adopt solar energy and fully benefit from it. In turn, this supports our Singapore Green Plan.

Ms Low Yen Ling: Mr Speaker, I would like to thank Mr Edward Chia for his two supplementary questions. I want to assure him that MTI and EMA work very closely with MSE. We are very committed to encouraging our households as well as businesses to accelerate and catalyse solar energy adoption.

On his first supplementary question, sub-accounts can sell their excess electricity through the master account. But that is after fulfilling their own energy demands as well as the aggregated onsite demand of the master account and other tenants. The sub-accounts will need to enter into commercial agreements with the master account to share the revenues accordingly.

We have been advocating to various stakeholders and industry developers – whether they are landlords holding master accounts or tenants holding the sub-accounts – to be fair and to be transparent. Because of the arrangement that I have talked about, SP Services would not have sight of the energy consumption of the tenants.

Imagine we are talking about Landlord A holding the master account and he has five tenants holding five sub-accounts. SP Services would only have sight of the master account. Because of that, only the landlord's master account can export excess solar energy to the grid and be paid via the ECIS.

So, to address, Mr Chia's first question, MTI and EMA are working with the SP group on the feasibility of an IT system enhancement to enable the master accounts or the sub-accounts with solar panels installed on their buildings to be paid accordingly, based on the excess solar energy that is exported to the grid. As this system-wide enhancement requires very massive, system-wide changes to the existing IT infrastructure, I seek the Member's understanding that they would require some time to make a proper and comprehensive assessment and to implement the necessary changes.

In his second question, the Member mentioned a code of conduct. I think he is alluding to the one by Fair Tenancy Industry Committee (FTIC), which applies to the retail premises. The Code of Conduct for the Leasing of Retail Premises in Singapore, developed by FTIC sets out key leasing principles to enable fairer and more balanced lease negotiations for the retail premises. Where it concerns retail premises, if there is any feedback, MTI and Enterprise Singapore will refer the feedback to the FTIC for review and incorporation into the Code of Conduct.

So, in the same vein, we encourage all the parties in this case – whether landlord holding the master account or tenants holding the sub-accounts – to be very fair and transparent as they negotiate and undertake their commercial agreement. We are committed to supporting industry-led efforts to promote best practices.

Mr Speaker: Mr Edward Chia.

Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui: Thank you, Speaker. I also thank the Minister of State for sharing that SP is looking into technology systems to account for sub-accounts' excess energy. But in some cases, most of the excess energy generated by sub-account holders are being subsumed by the master account holder, because there is no total aggregated excess energy. In this case, would SP be able to track that, since there is no aggregated excess?

If it is very much based on a commercial agreement, then, we need to help sub-account holders who are usually tenants, because they are already in asymmetrical structural relationship to negotiate with the master account holder. In this case, the master account holders are benefiting from the excess energy.

Ms Low Yen Ling: I want to thank Mr Edward Chia for these two further points. Therein lies two points: one is in terms of the IT factor that I talked about. I have explained that based on the current system, SP only has sight of the energy usage by the master account. In order to address this, they are looking at the feasibility of undergoing system enhancements and that will have system-wide implications and so they need time to do an evaluation.

In the meantime, whether you are the landlord holding the master account or you are the tenant, large or small, holding the sub-account, there needs to be a spirit of fairness and transparency, as you negotiate the conditions for the sharing of the revenue. I want to assure the Member that we take this very seriously. MTI and EMA will review any feedback and if there is a case in point, we certainly will follow up with the relevant master and sub-account holders, to make sure we facilitate a discussion. In the meantime, we will work with the relevant trade and industry associations and all stakeholders to promote industry-led sharing of best practices.