Ronnie Lim Business Times 12 Mar 11;
ELECTRICITY demand in Singapore slowed in the first two months of this year compared to last December, latest Energy Market Company (EMC) data shows. While EMC attributed the slowdown mainly to the Chinese New Year holiday stretch here, industry officials say they are nevertheless monitoring the dip.
'On average, demand levels in the first two months of the year were lower than last December's, with early February registering a significant dip in demand due to the Chinese New Year public holidays,' said Dave Carlson, the CEO of EMC which operates Singapore's wholesale electricity market. EMC's just-released news bulletin showed that monthly electricity demand here averaged 4,859 megawatts (MW) in January and 4,749 MW in the first 19 days of February. This was down about 2 per cent and 4 per cent respectively from December's 4,960 MW.
It also compares with average electricity demand of 5,000 MW or higher in March-December 2010.
EMC said that 'the significantly lower demand in February was mainly caused by the CNY public holidays, which historically register the year's lowest demand'.
One bright lining to the lower January-February electricity demand was that wholesale electricity prices here (as measured by the Uniform Singapore Electricity Price) averaged $157/MWh during that period, which was 8.8 per cent lower than the vesting price of $172/MWh.
(Vesting contracts cap electricity prices on 60 per cent of total electricity supply here, with the vesting contract price set at the long-run marginal cost of the most efficient plant technology in use.)
'It's also due to the weather factor,' said PowerSeraya chief executive John Ng who reckons that the lower average electricity demand in January-February was due to cooler weather and lower temperatures here this year, compared to the same period last year.
Electricity demand growth was also high last year due to the economic recovery from the earlier downturn, he explained.
But asked if he was concerned whether the January-February electricity demand numbers perhaps also reflected a slowing in economic momentum here, Mr Ng said: 'We are monitoring, as our business is about electricity demand growth.'
Remarking on the slowdown in electricity demand here so far this year, another industry official earlier said he was concerned that if this trend continued, there will not be enough market growth to support the numerous capacity expansions currently being undertaken by the generating companies here.
