Update on Generating Electricity for Pulau Ubin Residents Using Micro-grid

15 Ms Valerie Lee asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry (a) whether there are updates in the Government’s clean energy solutions from the Pulau Ubin Micro-Grid test bed; (b) whether the Government is considering additional measures to lower electricity tariff charges for Pulau Ubin residents and business owners who are mostly the elderly; and (c) whether offering the regulated SP Electricity Tariff will be an option for Pulau Ubin residents.

The Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Ms Gan Siow Huang) (the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry): Mr Speaker, there are around 60 residential and business consumers on Pulau Ubin, and their annual electricity demand is small. At the moment, it is not cost effective to connect Pulau Ubin to the mainland grid. Since 2013, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) has worked with developers to deploy a micro-grid on Pulau Ubin. This micro-grid is currently run by EDP Renewables, and serves more than 30 residential and business consumers located at the main village.

Consumers purchase electricity from the micro-grid at a rate that is lower than the cost of using their own diesel generators. Residents may approach the relevant agencies to understand their eligibility for financial assistance.

Mr Speaker: Ms Lee.

Ms Valerie Lee (Pasir Ris-Changi): I thank the Minister of State for shedding some light to the situation there, I have four supplementary questions to ask. What has been the frequency of outages for the micro-grid? When I am on the island chatting with them, they do share that they will request for compensation as outages damage their equipment, so I am concerned about inconveniences and the unseen costs that they might incur.

I understand that there is no change in stance in trying to reduce electricity tariff there, so I understand 80 cents per kilowatt hours is fixed all the way to 2034, as reported in The Straits Times last year, which is a long time. Price changes require the approval from EMA. What is the mechanism for these tariff changes? When will it be triggered or reviewed? The SP electricity tariff, as we know, is done every quarter. I am concerned that they might not have an equitable tariff adjustment mechanism.

The third is, is there an exit clause in this arrangement without termination penalties? I am concerned they might be penalised should they want to get out of this arrangement.

And the last question, probably a bit more technical, but could the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and EMA consider using the framework of how the uniform Singapore electricity price is calculated based on a weighted average of all offtake modal prices, that considers many variables for residents and business owners on Ubin? Because as rightly pointed out, it is almost negligible in the whole system demand of things. I am concerned that they might be the only residents in the whole country who do not have a fair price to essential services like electricity.

Ms Gan Siow Huang: I thank Ms Valerie Lee for her supplementary questions. First of all, I would like to emphasise that the Pulau Ubin micro-grid users are already paying a lower electricity rate compared to the actual operating cost of this micro-grid. And it is also lower than most other non-micro-grid users on Pulau Ubin, who are relying on diesel generators.

It is true that the micro-grid electricity consumers are paying 80 cents per kilowatt hour. This is largely determined based on the cost of generating electricity using the micro-grid. We are reviewing this and we do hope that there will be newer technologies to help generate electricity for the Pulau Ubin micro-grid at a lower cost. In the meantime, if there are households, especially those who are vulnerable or elderly who have difficulty paying the electricity bills, we will be very glad to work with Ms Valerie Lee, as well as the residents, to look at how we can provide some financial relief for them.

I think we also have to take a step back at this point to look at pricing of services and goods on Pulau Ubin. There is a very different treatment from mainland users who are using the SP grid. For example, car owners on Pulau Ubin, they do not pay the Certificate of Entitlement and also for those who are drawing water from the wells, they do not pay water bills. So, I think it is a bit difficult for us to just simply look at one piece of the cost of living issues and use that to determine then what we should do in terms of equalising the electricity tariff for the residents and the business consumers on Pulau Ubin.

Mr Speaker: I am sorry, we have run out of time, Ms Lee.

1.00 pm

Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question Time. Introduction of Government Bill. Acting Minister for Transport.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No 22(3), provided that Members had not asked for questions standing in their names to be postponed to a later Sitting day or withdrawn, written answers to questions not reached by the end of Question Time are reproduced in the Appendix.]