1. Since the nationwide rollout of the Open Electricity Market (OEM) two years ago, almost half of 1.4 million household accounts have switched to buying electricity from a retailer. Among those who have done so, at least nine in 10 were satisfied with the service provided by their retailers. This was one of the findings from the Consumer Satisfaction Survey (CSS) that EMA conducts on an ongoing basis to gauge the service performance of the OEM retailers.
2. The latest survey also showed that consumers had renewed contracts with their existing retailers due to the satisfactory service provided (57%) and attractive price plans (53%). Only one in two respondents who renewed their contract with their retailer had compared price plans with other retailers before doing so.
3. On this, Mr Ngiam Shih Chun, Chief Executive of EMA, said, “It is important for consumers to compare retailers’ price plans and their ratings when signing up or renewing their contract. Consumers should visit the website compare.openelectricitymarket.sg to compare the standard price plans from all OEM retailers.”
4. More than 7,000 households took part in the latest CSS^[1]. EMA developed a rating system to reflect the overall satisfaction level for each OEM retailer based on the CSS results. Four of the 12 retailers saw their ratings improve in this latest survey, namely Best Electricity, PacificLight Energy, Senoko Energy and Sunseap Energy. These ratings can be found on the OEM website www.openelectricitymarket.sg and will be updated every six months (refer to Annex A for details).
5. As most consumers signed two-year contracts since the start of the OEM^[2], many would have started to receive notifications from their retailer on their subsequent supply arrangements after their current contracts end. Retailers must send such notifications to consumers at least 10 business days before the end of the contract.
6. Even though most survey respondents (95%) remember receiving such notifications from their retailers, EMA would like to remind consumers to look out for such communications from their retailers towards the end of their contract. After signing up or renewing their contract with a retailer, consumers will be invited by the Energy Market Authority to participate in the CSS to rate their retailer’s service performance.

Updates on the OEM

7. As of end-October 2020, about 48% of households have switched to buying electricity from OEM retailers. 43% are on fixed price plans and 5% are on discount-off-tariff plans. The OEM retailers with the largest share of residential consumers are Keppel Electric (23%), Geneco (21%), and iSwitch and Tuas Power (13% each) (refer to Annex B for details).

Enclosed:
Annex A: Open Electricity Market Retailer Rating System
Annex B: Retailers’ Market Share of Residential Consumers

[1] Based on 5,700 responses from residential consumers who switched to an electricity retailer from November 2019 to May 2020 and 1,600 residential consumers who renewed with their retailer from January to June 2020.

[2] The zonal rollout of the Open Electricity Market started in November 2018. By May 2019, all consumers were able to switch to a retailer if they wished to.