Household electricity tariff to go up from July 1

By Lee Siew Hoon, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 26 June 2009 1604 hrs

SINGAPORE: After two quarters of downward adjustment, household electricity tariff will go up by 6.93 per cent or 1.25 cents per kilo watt hour (kWh) from July 1 to September 30.

Electricity supplier SP Services said the increase is due largely to higher average fuel oil prices from April to June which hit S$76.24 per barrel.

This is a 26 per cent increase from the S$60.47 per barrel used in setting the previous quarter's tariff.

The tariff is calculated based on a new formula which kicks in next month.

Under the revised formula, the electricity tariff for the next quarter will be based on the average fuel oil prices in the preceding three months instead of the fuel oil price in the first month of the previous quarter.

SP Services said the tariff revision is mitigated by a reduction in the cost recovery fee which it collects to cover the costs of billing and meter reading.

The fee which forms part of the overall tariff will go down from 0.28 cents per kWh to 0.22 cents.

SP services said this reduction is due to its productivity improvements and cost reductions. - CNA/vm

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.