SMS S Iswaran's oral reply to Parliament Questions on Bills, PAYU scheme and EVS

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.