Media Release
Factsheet: Households' Electricity Consumption During the Circuit Breaker Period
Singapore households’ electricity consumption typically increases from April through August. This is because the weather tends to be hotter in these months, and households use more electricity to power their fans or air-conditioners to stay cool.
2. During the Circuit Breaker (CB) period, most Singaporeans have been staying, working, or studying from home. This, coupled with the hotter weather, has led to higher electricity usage as well. For example, we saw an average increase of 22% in daily household electricity consumption in May 2020, compared to February 2020.
How Households Are Billed During the Circuit-Breaker Period
3. Under normal circumstances, SP Group will send meter readers to visit households to record their electricity, water and gas consumption every alternate month. From 7 April to 1 June 2020, SP Group suspended physical meter reading services in line with the safe distancing measures to minimise the transmission of Covid-19.
4. For households who do not have advanced electricity meters and also did not submit their own meter readings, their April and May consumption were estimated based on previous months’ consumption data. This would result in an underestimation of their bills for these months. When SP Group resumed its pre-CB physical meter reading routine from 2 June 2020, the accumulated underestimated amount of consumption will be adjusted in the June or July bill. Therefore, the June or July utility bills could be higher than the April and May bills. See below for the illustration
5. About 300,000 households have advanced electricity meters, and their electricity consumption is read remotely. They would be billed based on their actual consumption for April and May.
Support to Households
6. As part of the Budget 2020 Care and Support Package, eligible HDB households will receive double their regular GST Voucher U-Save this year, through a one-off GST Voucher U-Save Special Payment. Eligible households with five or more members will receive an additional GST Voucher – U-Save rebate. The next round of disbursement of the regular GST Voucher U-Save rebate and GST Voucher U-Save Special Payment will be in July 2020. The first disbursement of the additional GST Voucher U-Save rebate for eligible larger households with five or more members will be in October 2020. For more information, visit www.gstvoucher.gov.sg.
7. As part of the recently announced Fortitude Budget, each household with at least one Singapore Citizen will receive a one-off $100 Solidarity Utilities Credit for doing their part in staying home during the CB period. This amount will be credited in the July or August utilities bill with SP Group and covers all property types.
8. In support of the Government’s Resilience Budget 2020 measures to freeze all government fees and charges for one year, SP Group has deferred grid charges amounting to S$343 million and maintained its grid fee to customers.
What Households Can Do to Be Billed According to Actual Consumption
9. Households are encouraged to submit their own meter readings so as to be billed based on their actual consumption.
10. They can submit their meter readings via the following channels:
a) SP Utilities app - Download the app from spgrp.sg/mobileapp. Go to “Explore” and select “Submit Meter”.
b) SP Utilities Portal - Log on to SP Utilities Portal at spgrp.sg/UPortal. Go to “Usage” and select “Submit Meter Readings”.
c) WhatsApp - Take a photo of the meter (with the meter number and meter reading clearly shown) and send to 8482 8636.
d) Email – Email the meter readings to customerreading@spgroup.com.sg.
e) Automated Phone System – Call 1800 222 2333 to submit meter readings via the automated option.
11. Households can refer to their SP bills for their meter submission period (refer to image below). They can submit their meter readings up to three days (by 5pm) from the scheduled meter reading date. For those who have downloaded the SP Utilities app, they can also set an alert for their meter reading submission period.
