BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
Good news for member consumers.
The three electric cooperatives in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental announced power rate reduction for December.
Danny Pondevilla, acting general manager of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative, said their new average residential rate for this month is P9.8362 per kilowatt hour.
Pondevilla said it is P1.2911 or 88.39 percent lower than their rate last month at P11.1273 per kilowatt hour.
He attributed the rate reduction to the decrease in the generation, transmission, and system loss charges and other pass-through charges, such as Lifeline and Senior and the Value Added taxes.
Pass-through charges are now at P8.6496 per kilowatt hour, from P9.9407 per kilowatt hour last month.
But while most of the charges of Ceneco were reduced, its distribution, supply, metering and reinvestment fund for sustainable capital expenditure remained stable at P1.1866 per kilowatt hour.
POWER RATE DOWN
Pondevilla, who is also the general manager of the Northern Negros Electric Cooperative, said their power rate also decreased by P1.05 per kilowatt hour, or about 89 percent from the cost last month.
Effective this month, the Noneco power rate is at P8.9936 from P10.1802 per kilowatt hour.
Pondevilla noted that the lowering of the power cost is due to the reduction of generation rates.
In monitoring the monthly electricity usage, Ceneco and Noneco remind consumers to look at their kilowatt-hour consumption and not the amount as it may vary depending on the pass-through charges.
Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative general manager Jonas Descaya also reported a reduction in their power rates to P3.1159 per kilowatt hour this month.
This is P1.1940 or 72.29 percent lower than their rate last month at P4.3099 per kilowatt hour, Descaya said.
He explained that the main driver of the lower electricity rates is the P1.1940 per kWh decrease in the generation charge, which moved from P4.3099 to P3.1159 per kWh.
Descaya said the decrease in the generation charge is due to the reduction of the port supply cost from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market at P0.9642 per kWh.
The current average price of WESM is P2.1857 per kWh compared to previous month’s cost of P3.1499 kWh.
OTHER FACTORS
Descaya said other factors that contributed to the overall reduction were the system loss rate which decreased by P0.1617/kWh, the subsidy rates that decreased by P0.0066/kWh, and the VAT on generation that dropped to P0.1357/kWh.
Noceco reported that this is the lowest electricity rate registered for this year and the second consecutive month of decrease in the overall electricity rates of the power cooperative.
The overall residential electricity rates dropped despite the increase in transmission rate for residential customers by P0.0240 kWh and the VAT on transmission by P0.0074 kWh.
Descaya assured that Noceco’s distribution, supply and metering charges remain unchanged despite the decrease in the overall electricity rate for this month. He reiterated that the generation and transmission rates are pass-on charges paid to the respective power suppliers and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines. Thus, the collected amounts on these charges are not retained by Noceco, he added.*
