SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Adam Moncrieff, Karthik Kumar, Lynette Lim and Kelly Choo, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP 88 Market Street #47-03 CapitaSpring Singapore, 048948 Singapore Tel: +65 6990 8404 Email: adam.moncrieff@orrick.com Web: www.orrick.com
1. Structure and Ownership of the Power Industry 1.1 Law Governing the Structure and Ownership of the Power Industry Singapore’s power industry is substantially unbun- dled: power generation and retail electricity markets operate through competitive market arrangements, while transmission and distribution are treated as a regulated natural monopoly. The market-support func- tion is also centralised, with SP Services acting as the sole market support services licensee. Singapore also has a competitive wholesale electricity market with spot bidding. Consumers in Singapore (including households and small businesses) have a range of electricity retail options that enables them to benefit from competitive electricity prices. The primary legislation governing the electricity sector in Singapore, including regulating generation, trans- mission, distribution, retail, import and export, and use of electricity, is the Electricity Act 2001 of Singa- pore (the “Electricity Act”). Other licensable activities include the provision of market support services, and the operation of and trading in the wholesale electric- ity market. Under the Electricity Act, a transmission licensee, transmission agent licensee, market support licensee and wholesale electricity market operator licensee cannot be granted any electricity licence to carry out any other activity other than that set forth in their respective licences.
The regulator of the electricity sector in Singapore is the Energy Market Authority of Singapore (EMA), including licensing and regulatory functions for gen- eration, transmission, import, export, trading, retail, market support services and wholesale market opera- tion. See 1.2 Principal State-Owned or Investor-Owned Entities for more details on the other key stakeholders in Singapore’s electricity sector. 1.2 Principal State-Owned or Investor-Owned Entities Singapore’s principal power industry stakeholders are split between competitive commercial generators and retailers and a regulated grid monopoly within the SP Group. The key players and stakeholders in Singa- pore’s electricity market include the following. • Regulator – the EMA (see 1.1 Law Governing the Structure and Ownership of the Power Industry ). • Power generation – there are currently 21 enti- ties that hold an electricity generation electricity licence in Singapore and are therefore licensed to engage in the generation of electricity in Singapore. The most up-to-date version of this list of entities from time to time can be found on the licensees directory on the EMA’s website. As of the date of writing, all of these 21 entities are private limited companies (whether wholly or partially owned by private sector entities or otherwise), other than the National Environment Agency (which is a statutory board).
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