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Today, we consume more energy which makes our power bills go up.
Global energy consumption has increased almost every year for more than a decade. Much of this is due to changes in our lifestyle habits. Whether it is at work or home, we turn on multiple devices such as laptops, smart TVs, tablets, air conditioning, and lights. We also travel more, eat more, use more and throw more. This means using more electricity, more carbon emissions and higher bills to pay.
However, one company is bucking the trend. SP Group, which owns and operates Singapore’s electricity and gas networks, is empowering users to go green, saving energy and cost, all with a click of a button on the SP Utilities app. Here’s how.
A greener lifestyle with the SP Utilities app
Download the SP Utilities app regardless of which retailer you’re using. With the app, which is available on both the Google Play and Apple App Store, you can:
1. Monitor and reduce your consumption
As of March 2021, SP Group has completed the installation of over 500,000 smart electricity meters across Singapore — it’s well on track to fit all 1.4 million households here by 2024 with these smart devices.
With these high-tech meters and the SP Utilities mobile app (more on that later), you’ll be able to see your half-hourly electricity usage. You’ll also be able to see unusually high consumption, like if someone at home has been up gaming all night or running the aircon extra hard and running up the electricity bills.
2. Monitor your carbon footprint and reduce it
While many of us were staying at home more during Singapore’s Circuit Breaker period last year, SP Group launched its enhanced My Carbon Footprint feature on the SP Utilities app. This helps us to determine how much carbon emissions our daily consumption and lifestyle choices translate to and how many raintrees are needed to “offset” these habits.
It’s not just limited to electricity, water and gas consumption. My Carbon Footprint also helps you calculate your carbon emissions based on mode and duration of commute, food consumption, spending habits, and when possible again, the frequency of holiday travel. We can also compare our carbon footprint with the national average (over 8 tonnes of carbon emissions a year, per person) and pledge to reduce our consumption to attain sustainability goals.
3. Purchase Green Credits to “offset” your consumption
Since we can’t randomly plant trees in Singapore (based on the average consumption per person, each person needs to plant over 400 raintrees a year), the next best thing is to purchase Green Credits. In October 2020, SP Group launched the My Green Credits feature on the SP Utilities app. Now everyone with the app can purchase these Green Credits in the form of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) (from as little as over S$1)!
But how do these Green Credits work? Well, via the SP Utilities app, you can “green” any percentage of your monthly electricity consumption (from 0 to 100%, your choice). While this does not directly “clean” your electricity usage, the purchase of RECs supports the production of renewable (aka green) energy by providing a source of revenue for these sustainable means. So, your purchase empowers the growth of renewable energy operations for a greener world. Yay!
4. Earn rewards with GreenUP
On the SP Utilities app, you can also take part in green challenges (invite your friends and family too) and earn rewards together with the in-built GreenUP feature. Some of the challenges include Bring-Your-Own (BYO) reusable wares for takeaways, opting out of plastic cutlery and single-use plastic bags at F&B and retail brands such as Foodpanda, Miniso, Huggs Coffee, EAT, PAUL bakery and many others. And what do you get for doing so? Discounts, perks and even free drinks and meals. The cherry on top? Everyone can participate in GreenUP regardless of your utilities retailer! BRB, gonna redeem my rewards now.
5. Locate the nearest available charging points for your Electric Vehicle
While few of us can afford a Tesla, Singapore will eventually gravitate towards using electric vehicles (EVs) for a greener planet. However, one factor holding many drivers back is convenient access to EV charging locations. Good news! Via the SP Utilities app, you can search for and locate the nearest available charging points. As of August 2021, there are more than 400 SP charging points set up at 87 convenient locations islandwide, with more to come.
Making admin duties greener (and simpler) via the SP Utilities app
Remember the days where we had to travel personally to a specific location to open or close an account, make payment or seek help on certain issues? And if we wanted to submit something, we might also need to send a document by post. It can be a hassle, not to mention poor use of your time, transport money (plus carbon emissions) and effort.
With the SP Utilities app, you can now do the following digitally, from the comfort of your sofa:
- Open and close your SP account + check application status
- Reschedule appointments
- Pay SP Utilities bill by credit cards or setting up recurring payment in the app
- Submit meter readings
- Live Chat with SP’s agents
- Provide feedback/suggestions
- Report on supply interruption
Go green easily when you download the SP Utilities app. Help your family and friends form greener habits and earn rewards along the way!