Note: SP Group Wholesale Electricity No Longer The Cheapest Plan
By now, most would have already switched to one of the OEM electricity retailers. Moving away from the SP Group regulated tariff rate (23.02 cents/kWh) is a no brainer as there will definitely be significant savings. However, there are so many things to consider, fixed/variable plan, the duration of the contract, rebates/incentives, etc. This plan I am going to share/introduce is not a widely marketed variable plan which has no contract and is definitely the cheapest electricity plan in Singapore - SP Group Wholesale Electricity.
Think of all the OEM electricity retailers as the middle man, the OEM electricity retailers are either buying or generating the electricity at the wholesale rate and then packaging them as various plans to sell to the consumers (us) for a profit. Hence, the cheapest rate can only be the wholesale rate. Let me show some of my electricity bills.
April 2020
361.83 kWh - $46.87 which translate to 12.95 cents/kWh
Compare that against all the other electricity retailers and you can see how much additional savings we are getting in just 1 month.
March 2020
222.84 kWh - $33.37 which translate to 14.97 cents/kWh
By now, most would have already switched to one of the OEM electricity retailers. Moving away from the SP Group regulated tariff rate (23.02 cents/kWh) is a no brainer as there will definitely be significant savings. However, there are so many things to consider, fixed/variable plan, the duration of the contract, rebates/incentives, etc. This plan I am going to share/introduce is not a widely marketed variable plan which has no contract and is definitely the cheapest electricity plan in Singapore - SP Group Wholesale Electricity.
Think of all the OEM electricity retailers as the middle man, the OEM electricity retailers are either buying or generating the electricity at the wholesale rate and then packaging them as various plans to sell to the consumers (us) for a profit. Hence, the cheapest rate can only be the wholesale rate. Let me show some of my electricity bills.
April 2020
361.83 kWh - $46.87 which translate to 12.95 cents/kWh
Compare that against all the other electricity retailers and you can see how much additional savings we are getting in just 1 month.
March 2020
222.84 kWh - $33.37 which translate to 14.97 cents/kWh
Feb 2020
169.19 kWh - $28.37 which translate to 16.77 cents/kWh
The above are just rough estimates as I included other fees such as GST, meter reading, etc. The more accurate way is to remove them and compute but it is already lower even when I included those miscellaneous fees. On a side note, you can see the increase in electricity for the month of April as both of us started to work from home.
End of the day, one might still argue that the price of the wholesale rate may exceed those fixed plans. When that happens, the electricity retailers will be making a loss and once your contract is over, it will be higher too or worst case, they will close shop before that happens. lol.
My recommendation would be to ignore those little rebates/incentives the electricity retailers are using to attract new customers and locking them down with months/years of contracts. You can refer to the SP Group Wholesale Electricity Fact Sheet for more information. Interestingly, you will see this clause - SP Group is not allowed to offer any incentive. Imagine if they did, they will definitely be the clear winner.
Although this article might be a bit late, it will still be applicable to those that are still deciding or new BTO homeowners. Hope you find this useful!
Do take a look at this article too - Cheapest Electricity Plan - SP Group Wholesale Electricity Part 2
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I'm currently using Tuas Power with contract ending in Oct. I saw your post and want to switch to SP Group Wholesale Electric Price but I can't seem to figure out how to sign up despite logging in to the SP Utilities Portal (both on app and website).
ReplyDeleteHi Jason,
DeleteRight, I just assumed it will be easy to sign up and did not give any instruction on how to do so. Haha. Go to the SP Utilities Portal, on the left hand side menu, click on "Buy at Wholesale Electricity Price" (https://services.spservices.sg/#/dashboard/buy-wholesale-landing) and read/follow through to sign up.
Hope this helps!
it sounds very cheap compared to other retailer. Any hidden cost?
ReplyDeleteOps. It seems I have missed your comment. My bad. Anyway, you are looking at my bills already, do you see any hidden cost?
DeleteIf the SP Wholesale Electricity Plan is not satisfactory (e.g. price is too high), is it easy to switch back to SP regulated tariff?
ReplyDeleteThere's no way the SP Wholesale Electricity rate is going to be more expensive/higher than the regulated tariff rate. If you are considering switching to other OEM for fixed rate as an example, you can do it anytime because there is no contract. I have not switch before but I would think it should be relatively easy.
DeleteHave you checked your latest bill? Jump very high, maybe this time retailer can be cheaper
DeleteHi SB,
DeleteYes. Compared to last year, it has increased quite a bit but if you compare against the current rate the others are offering, it is still the cheapest. The only way it can be cheaper than the current SP rate is if one signed up for fixed plan before the increase.
So you statement on 11 Apr 2021 above:
Delete"There's no way the SP Wholesale Electricity rate is going to be more expensive/higher than the regulated tariff rate."
is too optimistic.
In my latest bill, my total is $148.96 and my meter is 576.28 kWh. This translates to 25.85 cents/kWh.
Current regulated tariff is only 25.02 cents/kWh (incl GST)
Hi SB,
DeleteI just checked my latest bill and compared it against the other retailers, it is indeed much higher for this month. Heck, it is even higher than the regulated tariff rate. Shall monitor for another 1-2 months before deciding if I should switch. Thanks for flagging this!
The comparison $/kWh, to be fair, should use meter reading only, before loss of transmission included. It's because many retailer package will charge based on meter only, multiply with their package fee. No loss of transmission taken into account.
ReplyDeleteWithout loss of transmission, the kWh amount should be a whole number, without declimal point, available at the very last before of the SP Wholesale bill before Total.
This SP Wholesale plan is still good, but comparison can be made fairer.
Hi Maka,
DeleteThanks for your comment but I don't think it matters.
Let's look at the Apr 2020 bill again. I extracted the information you were referring to from the last page:
Cumulative Metered Electricity Usage (kWh) 352.00
Losses and Unaccounted for Electricity (kWh) 9.83
Gross Electricity Usage (kWh) 361.83
Peak Interval Electricity Usage (kW) 2.15
This was how I computed:
361.83 kWh - $46.87 which translate to 12.95 cents/kWh
As you can see, the total usage charged has already included the loss of transmission. Assuming without the loss of transmission as you say, it would have been 352 kWh - $44.58 which translate to 12.95 cents/kWh. Get the point? I'm not sure how/why you would think the comparison isn't fair.
On a side note, do you really think if SP is charging the loss of transmission, the other retailers are not charging or are they so efficient that there is no loss of transmission? I would say it is already included with a margin. End of the day, everything is about revenue/profit and losses for the retailers too :)
First of all, thanks for your blog and your reply, I know the existence of this Wholesale plan from your blog. I am happily using it. I also told some of my friends about the existence of this plan.
DeleteAgree that other retailer already include it in the margin.
Just 1 question from your above Apr 2020 example.
Let's say I want to compare with fix price plan by retailer.
Why $46.87/(361.83 kWh) and why $44.58/(352 kWh); Why not $46.87/(352 kWh) ?
Why not everything you paid divided by number from meter reading?
Haha. If you agree that other retailers have included it in the margin, does it still matter? If the other retailers included it, why do you still want to exclude the loss of transmission?
Deletethe payment for SP wholesale... is it via the SP website/app? like how we pay our water?
ReplyDeletedo they allow pre-payment? i.e. paying more than your monthly bill =)
Hi foolish chameleon,
DeleteYes (similar to water), payment can be made using the SP mobile app with credit card. As for pre-payment, I'm not sure cause I have not tried it. But if you are doing it for your water bill, I guess you probably can :)