1. PacificLight electricity review

PacificLight has seven electricity plans, which can make it confusing when you’re trying to decide on one.

But I have to credit PacificLight for presenting the information in a clear and concise manner on their website.

Their factsheets are actually mobile optimised and easy to read, as opposed to the horrible PDF files that most other retailers upload as an afterthought.

Seems like a small thing, but I appreciate the effort to make the information clear to consumers.

2. PacificLight fees and charges

Okay, before we move on to the plans in detail, here’s a couple of important fees and charges to take note of.

If you decide to cancel your plan ahead of schedule, you have to pay a one-time early termination fee of $160 to $2,000.

This is quite lenient compared to other electricity retailers who charge hundreds of dollars in termination fees for every month left in your contract.

Finally, PacificLight's electricity plans do come with auto-renewal clauses.

You might want to create an event in your phone's calendar to remind yourself two to three months ahead of time to sort out your account cancellation or renewal with PacificLight.

3. PacificLight fixed price electricity plans

'Standard' fixed price electricity plans (as defined by the Energy Market Authority) can only be 24 months long at most, but recently we've seen various electricity retailers like Geneco come up with 36-month fixed rate plans.

Despite the long commitment period of three years, the prospect of locking down today's price for longer is certainly tantalising if you believe that the price of electricity will go up in the long run.

At $0.3209/kWh and $0.3168/kWh respectively, PacificLight's Savvy Saver 12-month and 24-month plans aren't the most competitive.

Currently, the cheapest electricity plans are Geneco's Get It Fixed 24-month and Senoko's LifePower24 plans at $0.3112/kWh – still more expensive than SP Group's current electricity price of $0.2974/kWh (October to December).

So, unless you're able to make use of some of PacificLight's $60 or $80 bill rebates (scroll below for promo codes) or are particularly loyal to PacificLight, I don't see a compelling reason to go for them.

4. PacificLight green electricity plans

PacificLight’s Sunny Side-Up is a carbon neutral electricity plan, offered in a 12-month contract period. However, it’s not one of those 100 per cent carbon neutral electricity plans that Keppel Electric or Senoko offers.

With PacificLight, a maximum of 25 Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) will be retired on your behalf throughout the entire 12-month contract period.

Priced at $0.3168/kWh, the PacificLight Sunny Side-Up plan is one of the cheapest green electricity plans on the market at the moment.

You may decide that PacificLight’s green Sunny Side-Up plan may be more justified due to the shorter 12-month commitment. Two years IS a pretty long time.

For reference, some other electricity retailers charge very high rates for carbon neutral or solar electricity, such as Sunseap’s 100 per cent Solar Energy plan which costs $0.4494/kWh.

5. PacificLight non-standard electricity plans

Here are two vastly different non-standard electricity price plans that’s not suitable for everyone.

The PacificLight Easy Peasy plan seems like something for people with commitment issues because it comes with no early termination charges.

In the same vein, promo codes, referral codes, and all sorts of discounts and vouchers cannot be used with this plan.

Since it’s low commitment, PacificLight isn’t going to be committed to you as well. Prices for this plan are subject to change. PacificLight just needs to inform you within 10 business days.

Also, Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) meters are not required. That means it’s likely that they will charge you the $0.50 x 30 days or 31 days = $15 surcharge per month on top of your usual electricity consumption.

Taking the average HDB 4-room consumption of 360kWh per month, we’re looking at an electricity bill of $121.85 per month under the PacificLight Easy Peasy plan.

$15 surcharge + ($0.2888 x 360kWh) = $118.97 per month

Next up, the PacificLight Stack It Up plan only makes sense for big families living in big houses with extremely high electricity bills above 601kWh per month.

You’re charged a hefty $0.3248/kWh for the first 300kWh (called Stack 1), followed by $0.2978/kWh for electricity between 301 to 600kWh (Stack 2), and $0.2898/kWh for everything above 600kWh (Stack 3).

AMI meter will be required at an installation fee of $42.80. Assuming your semi-detached house uses 620kWh electricity, you’ll be paying $191.46 per month.

$0.3248 x 300kWh = $97.44

$0.2978 x 300kWh = $89.34

$0.2898 x 20kWh = $5.796

Total: $97.44 + $89.34 + $5.769 = $192.58

Is the PacificLight Stack It Up plan worth it? Yes, since the current cheapest Geneco Get It Fixed24 at $0.3112/kWh (at 620kWh electricity consumption) means your bill will also be at $192.94.

Also, if you suddenly decide to sell your big house and cancel this plan, do remember big houses are charged higher early termination fees from $460 to $2,000.

• HDB Executive, Jumbo or Multi-Gen: $460
• Condominium, Apartment, Shophouse: $480
• Terrace: $720
• Semi-Detached: $1,000
• Bungalow, Penthouse: $2,000

6. PacificLight Discount off tariff plans (ceased)

'Confirm Save' was PacificLight’s cutesy way of saying 'discount off regulated tariff', which to be fair didn’t quite roll off the tongue.

In layman terms, this 'regulated tariff' is simply the rate that SP Group currently charges. It’s set by the EMA every quarter, so there are fluctuations.

For example, the tariff is currently $0.3017/kWh in Q3 2022 (July to Sept 2022), and is likely to rise in the future.

Discount off tariff plans are good for those who don’t mind fluctuations in their monthly bills, as long as they don’t rugi when there’s a drop in tariff. In any case your bill will 'confirm' be lower than your SP bill.

But PacificLight’s weakness was that its discount wasn’t particularly high. Several electricity retailers were offering discounts as high as 23 per cent to 25 per cent in Q2 2019 when the tariff was $0.2439/kWh.

Currently, there are no discount off tariff electricity plans available on the Open Electricity Market. The last discount off tariff plan was by Senoko, which phased out in Q2 2022.

7. PacificLight Peak and off-peak electricity plans

The PacificLight Save While Sleeping was a peak and off-peak type of electricity plan that the electricity retailers have phased out for a couple of years now.

Finally, PacificLight brought these peak and off-peak electricity plans back! Yay!

How does a peak and off-peak electricity plan work?

During 'peak' hours, i.e. 7am to 11pm, there would be a fixed price. During the 'off-peak' hours of 11pm to 7am, the electricity price will conventionally be cheaper during the night.

That makes it suitable for, say, young working professionals who are out for most of the day (and night) and come home mainly to sleep while their air-conditioners blast away.

Naturally, this plan would require an advanced meter (AMI) to be installed at a fee of $42.80. This doodad tells you how much you actually use every half an hour.

(If you’re only considering this plan, it’s a good idea to get one anyway so you get a better understanding of your actual usage.)

However, do note that while the peak and off-peak plans were popular a couple of years back, people realised that this plan may not suitable for everyone’s lifestyle after all.

8. PacificLight referral codes

First, you should know that signing up with someone’s referral code can get you a $20 rebate off your bill. The person who referred you makes $30. (Wah, PacificLight got a lot of money to burn sia…)

But whether you want to make some random person on the internet rich, I leave it up to you. You will find your unique referral code in PacificLight’s welcome email to you. Hope you haven’t deleted it yet.

9. PacificLight promo codes and promotions

There are also tons of other generous PacificLight promo codes and credit card promotions you can take advantage of, and I’ve compiled them here: