Pre-paid power trial in 2009

Pay first, then use. That is how all homes could be buying electricity, from their provider of choice, under the world's first proposed prepaid electronic system linked to "intelligent" meters. Gone would be the existing meter currently read manually by SP Services staff every other month. In would come a new device that would display, and refresh half-hourly, the amount of electricity you have left. Households would be able to buy credits through mobile phones, ATMs, the Internet and at convenience stores.

Besides logging your gas and water usage, the meter could also double as a home monitoring system or fire alarm, said Mr Soh Siew Cheong, senior adviser to the Energy Market Authority (EMA), at a workshop on smart energy. Giving details of the proposed electricity vending system that was revealed in Parliament last month, Mr Soh said: "Anybody can buy any amount of electricity from any retailer, anytime, anywhere and through any means."

The EMA, which is creating a prototype of the vending system, plans to conduct a trial for some 1,000 households in 2009. If this proves feasible, there could be a full-scale roll-out that could cost "hundreds of millions of dollars". The new system would do away with monthly bills and the cash deposit required to maintain an account. Households would also have real choice for the first time - with several power suppliers, not just SP Services, vying for their dollar. Consumers would get to compare prices - which would fluctuate through the day - at all points-of-sale, said Mr Soh.

Allowing households to choose their power supplier will mark the last stage of the energy market's liberalisation begun in 2001.

- Simon Tay has tipped off the small local peakoiler community about this coming thing since quite a while back. Read : Liberalisation of Electricity Market and "True" outcome of Liberalising of the Electricity Market. He has been yelling about the potential downside of it, as you can see.

What do I think? I think it might be a chance to practise some "trading skills", though probably not by choice. This might lead more people to be more, how shall I put it, "conversant" with the ins and outs of the various energy futures markets, seeing how we get 80% of our electricity from natural gas now, and how it is linked closely to crude oil prices. But, well, that's from an investor / trader / speculator point of view :)

I wonder if there's any scope in this scheme for buying/selling of "micro-generation" power - or is that even mentioned at all?

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