Statute Details
- Title: Electricity (Electricity Licences — Exemption) Order 2019
- Act Code: EA2001-S815-2019
- Type: Subsidiary Legislation (SL)
- Authorising Act: Electricity Act (Cap. 89A)
- Enacting Authority: Energy Market Authority of Singapore (with the approval of the Minister for Trade and Industry)
- Citation and commencement: Comes into operation on 11 December 2019
- Making date: Made on 3 December 2019
- Key provisions: Section 2 (definitions); Section 3 (application); Section 4 (exemption for certain persons generating electricity); Section 5 (exemption for consumer on-supplying and on-selling electricity on multi-user premises)
- Status: Current version as at 27 Mar 2026
What Is This Legislation About?
The Electricity (Electricity Licences — Exemption) Order 2019 (“the Order”) is a targeted regulatory instrument that creates licence exemptions under the Electricity Act (Cap. 89A) for certain parties involved in on-site generation and intra-premises electricity trading. In practical terms, it addresses a common scenario: electricity is generated on the premises (for example, via a generating unit), and then electricity is supplied and sold either to the generator’s own consumer or to other consumers within the same premises.
Rather than requiring every participant in such arrangements to hold the relevant electricity licences, the Order permits specified persons to operate without being caught by particular licensing requirements—provided strict conditions are met. The Order is especially relevant to buildings and developments where multiple consumers coexist (e.g., mixed-use developments, industrial clusters, or multi-tenant sites) and where electricity flows are measured through master-meters and sub-meters.
Overall, the Order supports the policy objective of enabling distributed generation and contestable electricity arrangements while maintaining regulatory control through definitions, metering concepts, and limits on the purposes for which generated electricity may be consumed.
What Are the Key Provisions?
1. Definitions that drive the scope (Section 2)
The Order’s legal effect depends heavily on its defined terms. Several definitions are particularly important for practitioners advising on compliance:
- “Excluded person” includes a management corporation, subsidiary management corporation, Town Council, and related corporations of those entities. This matters because the exemptions in Sections 4 and 5 apply to persons other than excluded persons.
- “Multi-user premises” and “single-user premises” distinguish between (i) premises with two or more consumers (each for a specified non-residential purpose) plus a person generating electricity on-site, and (ii) premises with a single consumer plus a generator.
- “Master-meter” measures electricity consumed by all units and common areas in a building or cluster at multi-user premises. “Sub-meter” measures electricity consumed after passing through the master-meter at parts of the building or cluster.
- “Related corporation” uses the Companies Act concept of deemed relatedness (via section 6 of the Companies Act). This is crucial for the “related to that consumer” condition in Section 4.
- “Unique identifier” ties lawful use/occupation for a specified non-residential purpose to government/public authority identification systems. This is a compliance hook: the Order treats premises as lawfully used/occupied for a specified non-residential purpose if the use is under the person’s unique identifier (or a connected purpose linked to a unique entity number).
2. When the Order applies (Section 3)
Section 3 sets out a structured “if and only if” application test. The Order applies where all of the following circumstances are satisfied:
- Supply and sale of generated electricity: A person (including a consumer) supplies and sells electricity generated through a generating unit on the premises to the consumer at the premises—either on single-user premises (to the consumer at the premises) or on multi-user premises (to one or more consumers at the premises).
- Consumption limitation: The generated electricity must be consumed at the premises only for specified non-residential purposes.
- Hybrid supply and metering requirement for multi-user premises: In the multi-user scenario, electricity is also supplied from a transmission system and is metered at the premises through a master-meter and one or more sub-meters. This ensures that the regulatory model can allocate and measure electricity flows within the premises.
For lawyers, Section 3 is the gatekeeper. If the metering architecture or the “specified non-residential purpose” consumption condition is not met, the exemptions may not apply, and licensing obligations under the Electricity Act could be triggered.
3. Exemption for certain persons generating electricity (Section 4)
Where the Order applies, Section 4 provides that the person generating the electricity is exempt from specified provisions of the Electricity Act in relation to the supply and sale of electricity to:
- a contestable consumer, and
- a non-contestable consumer.
The exemption applies only to the generator other than an excluded person, and only if two conditions are satisfied:
- Licensing status / exemption alignment: The generator is a generation licensee, or is exempt from section 6(1)(a) of the Act in relation to the electricity.
- Relationship to the consumer (where the generator occupies premises only to generate): If the generator lawfully uses or occupies the premises only to generate, then the generator must be related to that consumer.
The relationship condition is a key risk-control feature. It prevents unrelated third parties from using the exemption to trade electricity within premises without the expected licensing framework, unless the generator is within a corporate relationship to the consumer (as defined by “related corporation”).
4. Exemption for consumers on-supplying and on-selling electricity on multi-user premises (Section 5)
Section 5 extends the exemption logic to a different participant role: the consumer who supplies and sells electricity to other consumers within multi-user premises. Again, the exemption applies to a consumer other than an excluded person, and only if:
- Generation eligibility: The electricity is generated at the premises by a person who is a generation licensee, or is exempt from section 6(1)(a) of the Act in relation to the electricity.
- On-supply/on-sale conduct: The consumer supplies and sells some or all of that electricity to one or more other consumers at the premises.
In effect, Section 5 recognises that in multi-tenant environments, electricity may be re-sold or re-distributed among tenants without each tenant needing its own electricity licence—provided the original generation is properly licensed/exempt and the trading remains within the premises and among consumers there.
How Is This Legislation Structured?
The Order is concise and structured around five provisions:
- Section 1 sets out the citation and commencement (11 December 2019).
- Section 2 provides definitions that determine who qualifies and what premises and metering arrangements are contemplated.
- Section 3 contains the application test—the factual and operational circumstances under which the exemptions operate.
- Section 4 creates an exemption for generators (subject to “excluded person” and licensing/relationship conditions).
- Section 5 creates an exemption for consumers who on-supply/on-sell electricity within multi-user premises.
Notably, the Order does not itself create a licensing regime; it operates by exempting persons from specific licensing-related provisions of the Electricity Act, but only within the defined factual boundaries.
Who Does This Legislation Apply To?
The Order applies where the factual circumstances in Section 3 are satisfied—namely, electricity is generated on premises and supplied/sold to consumers at those premises for specified non-residential purposes, with multi-user premises requiring master-meter and sub-meter arrangements and supply from a transmission system.
In terms of persons, the exemptions in Sections 4 and 5 apply to relevant parties other than excluded persons. “Excluded persons” include management corporations, subsidiary management corporations, Town Councils, and related corporations of those entities. Accordingly, lawyers should be alert to the entity type involved in any on-site generation or intra-premises electricity trading, because the same commercial arrangement may be exempt for one party but not for an excluded entity.
Why Is This Legislation Important?
This Order is important because it provides regulatory certainty for distributed generation and intra-premises electricity arrangements. Without such exemptions, parties involved in on-site generation and trading could face licensing requirements under the Electricity Act, potentially increasing transaction costs, delaying project implementation, or complicating contractual structures for multi-tenant developments.
From a compliance perspective, the Order’s value lies in its conditional design. It does not broadly deregulate electricity trading; instead, it ties exemptions to:
- the premises classification (single-user vs multi-user),
- the consumption purpose (specified non-residential purposes),
- the metering framework (master-meter and sub-meters for multi-user premises),
- the generation licensing status (generation licensee or exempt from the relevant Electricity Act provision), and
- the identity and relationship of the parties (including the “related corporation” requirement where the generator occupies premises only to generate).
Practically, this means that legal advisers should treat the Order as a deal-structuring tool. It can influence how parties contract (who is the generator, who is the consumer, whether corporate relationships exist), how metering is implemented, and how electricity is allocated and billed among tenants. It also affects risk allocation: if the conditions are not met, the exemptions may not apply, and licensing obligations could arise.
Related Legislation
- Electricity Act (Cap. 89A)
- Companies Act (Cap. 50) (definition of “related corporation”)
- Land Titles (Strata) Act (Cap. 158) (definition of “management corporation”)
- Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act (Cap. 30C) (definition of “subsidiary management corporation”)
- Town Councils Act (Cap. 329A) (definition of “Town Council”)
Source Documents
This article provides an overview of the Electricity (Electricity Licences — Exemption) Order 2019 for legal research and educational purposes. It does not constitute legal advice. Readers should consult the official text for authoritative provisions.