New energy firm Enel X’s virtual power plant is set to support Singapore’s national electricity market to boost consumers’ energy savings and to increase businesses’ flexibility in terms of energy use.
Enel X CEO Francesco Venturini said that the company’s “virtual power plant participation is a growing opportunity that can offer a new source of revenues, offset retail electricity costs, and allow for investments in new technologies such as battery storage”.
Demand response programs encourage energy users to adjust their energy consumption in order to help stabilize the grid when requested by the system.
Virtual power plant participation in Singapore is increasingly important, as demand for energy grows, particularly with the emergence and development of electricity-intensive sectors, such as data centres.
In addition to industrial gas producers and data centres, industries well-suited to participate in this initiative include technology companies, cold storage units, food processing and manufacturing facilities, water utilities as well as commercial buildings.
Liberation of Singapore’s energy market
Since 2001, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) has progressively opened the retail electricity market to competition in order to allow business consumers more options to manage their energy cost.
This means that instead of buying power solely from government-owned electricity and gas distribution company, SP Group, at quarterly-reviewed regulated tariff, consumers can look through price plans offered by different retailers and choose one that best meet their needs.
Since 1 November 2018, the Open Electricity Market (OCM) was extended to all consumers across Singapore by zones. Over 1.4 million households and business accounts now have the option to buy electricity from a retailer on a price plan that suits them.
The OCM also gives consumers more choices and flexibility, while enjoying the same supply through the national power grid.
However, if consumers prefer to stick with SP Group, they can do so and purchase electricity at the regulated tariff, and no further action is needed on their part. It is also not compulsory to switch to a retailer, and there is no deadline for switching.
