Question No. 901 in
Notice Paper No. 3 of 2009
Name and Constituency of Member of
Parliament
Mdm
Halimah Yacob, Member for
Jurong GRC
Question
To ask the
Minister for Trade and Industry (a) how many households are
currently in arrears of their water and electricity bills for more
than three months; (b) how many households are on the
Pay-as-You-Use (PAYU) scheme; and (c) whether he will provide an
update on the pilot project that was started to help households
keep tabs on their energy
consumption.
Answer
1As at November 2008, there
were 3,099 household accounts with outstanding arrears of more than
3 months in their utilities bills. This comprised 0.28% of all
household
accounts.
2As at November 2008, there were
13,262 households on the PAYU scheme, of which nearly half were
from the one and two-room HDB
flats.
3The Energy Market Authority has
embarked on the pilot project known as the Electricity Vending
System (or EVS in short) since July 2007. By integrating smart
metering technologies and the existing e-Payment infrastructure,
the EVS not only allows consumers to monitor their electricity
usage, but also to choose and purchase electricity from competing
electricity
retailers.
4Field tests of the prototype EVS are now being done with
selected residents in Marine Parade whose units have been installed
with smart meters. The technical viability of the system will be
tested through these tests. From February 2009, EMA will be further
conducting a live-trial of the system, involving residential
volunteers in Marine Parade and West Coast to enable EMA to gather
feedback from these households. The trial is targeted for
completion by the third-quarter of 2009.Feedback from the trial run will enable EMA to evaluate the feasibility of
wide-scale implementation of the
system.