Singapore’s Energy Market Authority, national water agency Public Utilities Board and Singapore Power, on Monday, jointly issued a Call for Proposals (CFP) to develop technical solutions for a smart metering trial.
The CPF invites prospective firms to develop and trial smart solutions for remotely reading all three meters reliably and cost-effectively. This move will provide more timely usage data to consumers to help them better manage their utility consumption.
Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran announced the initiative at opening ceremony of the ninth Singapore International Energy Week. It will enable the households to track the usage of water, electricity and gas through a mobile application to enhance consumers’ awareness of their consumption patterns.The trial of the smart technologies will begin in early 2018.
Iswaran said the call for proposal bestows the industry with an opportunity to offer an innovative and integrated solution that can enhance productivity and allow consumers to make informed decisions on their consumption and conservation of utilities. He also said,
The results of the test-bed will help us assess whether and how we can deploy advanced metering solutions nation-wide, in tandem with our plans to have full retail competition in the electricity market by 2018.
He discussed six measures that aim to help make Singaporeans more conscious about energy use and improve Singapore’s energy resilience. Among them was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between EMA and 16 organisations to pilot Project OptiWatt which will focus on optimizing energy consumption by managing their demand. This will comprise moving certain operations to off-peak periods when the cost of electricity is lower, or reducing electricity consumption at certain time periods.
The pilot is about demand-side management (DSM), which facilitates moving operations off-peak periods when the cost of electricity is lower, i.e. energy consumption can be shifted from peak to non-peak hours. This reduces the maximum load that the energy system needs to cater to, yielding system-wide benefits.
