Kevin Kwang Channel NewsAsia 19 Mar 18;
SINGAPORE: Local telco StarHub on Monday (Mar 19) announced its intention to go beyond its traditional business of offering mobile, pay TV and broadband services to venture into the electricity sector.
In a press release, the telco said it is joining forces with local solar energy provider Sunseap to sell electricity at the soft launch of the Open Electricity Market in Jurong next month.
There will be two clean energy subscription plans offered by both companies: Green Life and Green Save.
Green Life is a 100 per cent clean energy plan targeting environmentally conscious customers. This means they will receive electricity fully produced by Sunseap’s solar systems and this will be charged at the usual regulated electricity tariff, the press release explained.
The current electricity tariff is 21.56 cents per kilowatt hours (kWh), according to the Energy Market Authority’s (EMA) website. The tariff for the next quarter has not been announced yet.
As for Green Save, customers will receive 5 per cent clean energy and get a 20 per cent discount off the regulated tariff, the companies said.
Mr Howie Lau, chief marketing officer at StarHub, said in the press release: “Working together with Sunseap, we are excited to offer households a compelling way to live a lower carbon footprint lifestyle using the sun’s energy.
“Leveraging each other’s expertise, we will bundle essential services from mobile, pay TV, broadband and electricity in attractive packages for customers, who are becoming more environmentally aware.”
StarHub is unable to provide more pricing details currently, when asked if existing subscribers to its mobile, pay TV or broadband services will have additional incentives to switch from Singapore Power and take up either of the two plans.
The telco did say that 5 per cent of its profits out of this business in the first three years will be channelled into its StarHub Clean Energy Fund, which will be used to “drive environmental conservation initiatives, including clean energy and efficiencies”.
It was not able to disclose more specifics on how the fund will be used.
The EMA announced last October that households and businesses in Jurong will be able to buy their electricity from a retailer during the soft launch of the Open Electricity Market from next month, or continue with SP Group.
The option to shop around for electricity suppliers will be extended to the rest of Singapore in the second half of 2018.
EMA said on its website that there will be 14 retailers participating in the soft launch, including Sembcorp Power.
Source: cna/kk
