Public Utilities Act
(CHAPTER 261)

(Original Enactment: Act 1 of 1963)

REVISED EDITION 1992
(9th March 1992)
An Act to establish a corporation to be known as the Public Utilities Board and to provide for the transfer to the Board of the functions, services, assets and liabilities of the City Council in respect of water, gas and electricity, and for matters incidental thereto.
[1st May 1963: , except Part VA ]
PART I
PRELIMINARY
Short title
1.  This Act may be cited as the Public Utilities Act.
Interpretation
2.  In this Act —
“apparatus” means water, gas or electrical apparatus and includes all apparatus, machines, consuming devices and fittings in which pipes or conductors are used or of which they form a part;
“area of supply” means that area within which a licensee is authorised by his licence to supply electricity;
“Board” means the Public Utilities Board established by section 3;
“Chairman” means the Chairman of the Board appointed under section 5;
“chief executive officer” means the chief executive officer of the Board and includes any temporary chief executive officer;
“City Council” means the City Council of Singapore originally incorporated by Indian Act No. 27 of 1857 and incorporated under and by virtue of the Municipal (Elections — Amendment) Ordinance 1948 [29/48] with the status of a City conferred by Royal Charter dated 24th July 1951, and as constituted under section 6 of the Local Government Ordinance 1957 [24/57];
“conductor” means an electrical conductor arranged to be electrically connected to a system;
“consumer” means a person who is supplied with water, gas or electricity or whose premises are for the time being connected for the purpose of a supply of water, gas or electricity with any system of supply;
“electricity” means electrical power when generated, transmitted, supplied or used for any purpose except the transmission of any communication or signal;
“electricity cable” means a length of insulated single conductor (solid or stranded), or of two or more such conductors, which are laid together underground, whether or not such conductor or conductors are provided with an overall covering for mechanical protection;
“grievous hurt” and “hurt” have the same meanings as those respectively assigned to them in the Penal Code [Cap. 224];
“installation”, except for the purposes of Part V, includes any plant or apparatus designed for the collection, production, supply or use, as the case may be, of water, gas or electricity;
“licence” means a licence issued under the provisions of Parts V and VI;
“licensee” means a person to whom a licence has been issued;
“live” or “alive” applied to a system or any part of a system, means that a voltage exists between any conductor and earth or between any two conductors in the system;
“main” means a pipe or supply line through which water, gas or electricity is or can be supplied, whether the pipe or line is in use or not;
“Municipal Provident Fund” means the Municipal Provident Fund established under the provisions of the Municipal Ordinance [Cap. 133, 1936 Ed.] and continued and deemed to have been established under the Local Government Ordinance 1957 [24/57];
“occupier” means the person in occupation of the premises in respect of which the expression is used and includes the person having the charge, management or control thereof either on his own account or as agent of another person, but does not include a lodger;
“premises” includes messuages, houses, buildings, lands, tenements, easements and hereditaments of any tenure, whether open or enclosed, whether built on or not, whether public or private, and whether maintained or not under statutory authority;
“private safety” means the obviation of danger to individuals or to private property;
“public safety” means the obviation of danger to the general public, to public property and to roads, streets, railways, canals, docks, wharves, piers, bridges, gas-works, water works and their appurtenances and telegraphic, telephonic and other electrical signalling lines;
“regulations” means regulations made under this Act;
“street” includes any road, square, footway or passage, whether a thoroughfare or not, over which the public has a right of way, and also the way over any public bridge, and also includes any road, footway or passage, open court or open alley, used or intended to be used as a means of access to two or more holdings, whether the public has a right of way thereover or not; and all channels, drains, ditches and reserves at the side of any street shall be deemed to be part of the street;
“supply line” means a conductor or conductors or other means of conveying, transmitting or distributing electricity, together with any casing, coating, covering, tube, pipe, insulator or post enclosing, surrounding or supporting the same or any part thereof, or any building or apparatus connected therewith for the purpose of transforming, conveying, transmitting or distributing electricity;
“system” means an electrical system in which all the conductors and apparatus are electrically or magnetically connected.
[34/72; 14/74; 16/88]