How to Save on Your Electricity Utility Bill in Singapore

The harsh reality is right at our doorstep as this article demonstrates how soaring inflation is hitting the low-middle income families especially hard.

So much so that the interviewees share how they are trying to tighten their belts by 'cutting shower time by half' or staying cooped up at home...

In fact, my wife has already been constantly reminding me:

Turn the lights (+ fan) off if you're not in the room! It's wasting electricity!

Ring a bell?

-- That would probably come from your mum in the past :p

Anyway, with that in mind, , I intend to re-discover the type of electrical appliances and how much you spend on each of them using the current market rate.

Read also: Breakdown of our pick for SG #1 Cashless Payment Method

Breakdown of Electricity Bill

Different households use different appliances for varying lengths of time.

But for illustration stake, we will just do a comparison of a few common electrical appliances namely:

• Aircon
• Front Load Washing Machine
• Microwave
• Ceiling Fan
• 65 Inch LED TV
• Shower Heater
• LED Light Bulbs

And I have tabulated the 'findings' into a table below...

Anyway, so my few observations include:

1. Those that help to heat up or cool you down will take up much higher kilowatts (kWh). I just realized that shower heater takes up more power than the Aircon and Microwave!
2. And yes! I can tell my wife switching on the lights only take up 10 watts (0.01 kW) and costs $1.80 even if I on it 24 hours/7 for whole month! BUT.. of course i wont do that lah.. need to save the earth :)
3. Although the kwh cost range is $0.18 to $0.25, the total amount went from $142 to $197, a good $50 monthly difference.

So then, the next question is... how can we save on the electricity bill?

Current State of Electricity Bill

As a precursor, electricity prices have increased worldwide after gas prices hit record levels due to soaring demand for gas from pandemic-recovery and shortage of global gas supply (hello Russia!).

Hence, grid operator SP Group has announced that the electricity tariff for the period April 1 to June 30 will be 27.94 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) excluding GST, up almost 10% from the current 25.44 cents per kWh.

For some perspective, the average monthly electricity bill for a 4-Room HDB will go up by $8.73, almost double the increase in the previous quarter.

When will Electricity Costs stop going up?

Energy costs make up approximately 76% of the Tariff rates and 22% goes to SP Power as Network costs (they provide the power grid).

In order to know when I need to renew my plan (and for those who want to sign up with discounted electricity retailers); we need to guess-timate where the peak will be and avoid that.

With that in mind and to satisfy my curiosity, I went to dig into the history of the tariffs from SP group from 2014 onwards.

Apparently, we are at the highest point now compared to 2014 until 2022.

While many are terrified that oil prices may continue to escalate higher amid the geopolitics and economic re-opening, sometimes the cure for high oil prices is higher oil prices itself.

Sounds contradictory?

This is because higher oil prices could incentivize upstream investments and help push more supply into the market. In turn, it would 'kick back' the demand-supply curve to less than US$100 per barrel in the medium term.

With that in mind, let's look at what we should do as a consumer instead.

Smart way to save on Electricity Bill

Instead of trying to scrimp and reduce your air-con/water heater usage, a smart way is to switch to a discounted electricity retailer.

An important thing to note: Changing to a retailer will not affect your electricity supply. SP Group will continue to operate the national power grid and deliver electricity to you.

However, it can be confusing to choose from a total of 9 retailers (website as of April 2022) and also select the kind of plan to maximize your savings.

And for this, I intend to share how you can save on your electricity bill by using Senoko Energy (my electricity retailer).

How to save on Electricity Bill

With energy prices likely to stay elevated until mid 2023, it makes sense to just opt for the 12 months variable plan to get a 3% discount off the usual SP Power's kwh rate.

Right now, the Electricity Tariff by SP Power is at S$0.2794/kwh, so you may be paying $0.27/kwh from May 2022 onwards.

As for me, I have managed to lock it in for 2 years at a cheap rate of $0.1648/kwh with Senoko Energy that in Jan 2021 (see my bill below) - a whooping 41% savings!

With my contract ending soon in Jan 2023, I may monitor and do up another similar post again...

Senoko Energy's Referral Promo Code - NLX8R6HJ

If you notice, I am actually paying zero dollars for my bill due to the referral credits I obtain since sharing about this to people.

I am very grateful for those who have benefitted from joining Senoko Energy through me - thanks a lot!

If you want to also save on your electricity bill, click on the link here to sign up today!

Remember: use my referral code "NLX8R6HJ" and earn a $30 referral rebate on your electricity bill when you sign up with Senoko Energy. Browse their price plans here and start saving now!

Original Post: https://www.smallcapasia.com/how-to-save-on-your-electricity-utility-bill-in-singapore/