About half of households in EMA pilot cut energy usage in Sept

About half of the 1,000 households enrolled in a pilot programme to encourage less energy use during peak periods managed to cut their power consumption in September by at least 20 per cent from their typical usage levels.

- Ariel Yu

These households received alerts on 15 occasions from utility operator SP Group's app to temporarily cut down or defer their electricity usage.

Participants in the opt-in programme have to reduce their electricity consumption by at least 20 per cent from their typical usage levels during a "live event", which is a two-hour period to mimic demand peaks, in order to receive cash rewards.

Households were not penalised for not responding to the prompts.

The Household Demand Response Pilot, rolled out in September by the Energy Market Authority (EMA) and SP Group, will end on Feb 28, 2025.

They did not reveal the amount of energy saved in September.

The pilot aims to encourage households equipped with smart meters to actively reduce their electricity usage during peak demand periods, relieving stress on the national grid during outages.