ELECTRIC consumers in Negros Occidental may incur lower bills this month as power distribution utilities in the province reported a drop in their respective rates.
The Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco), which caters to the biggest number of consumers in the province, will still implement two different power rates for May.
Engineer Leomel Tambanillo, manager of corporate planning department of Ceneco, told SunStar Bacolod that the power rate for “affected consumers” is at P11.1830 per kWh.
The figure is P0.7191 lower than P11.9020 per kWh in April.
Tambanillo said the effective rate for “unaffected consumers,” on the other hand, is P10.8792 per kWh or a drop of P0.7135 from last month’s rate of P11.5926 per kWh.
“The reduction is mainly attributed to decreases on the generation, transmission and systems loss charges,” he said, adding that along with lower generation cost, all value-added tax (VAT) charges also decreased.
Ceneco specifically covers cities of Bacolod, Bago, Talisay and Silay, and towns of Murcia and Salvador Benedicto.
Its general manager Sulpicio Lagarde Jr. earlier explained that “affected consumers” pertain to electricity consumers who are affected by the recovery of Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (Psalm).
The recovery covers Generation Rate Adjustment Mechanism (Gram), Incremental Currency Exchange Rate Adjustment (Icera), and Automatic Cost Recovery Mechanism (ACRM) True-up Adjustment within the relevant period covering January 2007 to April 2010, as per Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) order dated June 20, 2017.
Psalm’s recovery, which took effect starting last month, will be implemented for 60 months.
“Unaffected consumers” are those who were not using electricity within the said relevant period,” Lagarde added.
Aside from Psalm, the power distribution utility is also implementing adjustments for Kepco Salcon Power Corporation (KSPC) and Energreen Development Corporation.
KSPC will recover the differential billing equivalent to a monthly rate of P0.0817 per kWh for 50 months, while the recovery from Energreen resulted in an impact of P0.0930 per kWh.
Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative, catering to localities in the southern portion of the province, from Pulupandan to Hinoba-an, also reported a power rate reduction of P0.50 per kWh.
From P11.5326 per kWh in April, Noceco’s rate went down to P11.0306 per kWh this month.
Jonas Discaya, general manager of Noceco, said the main factor contributing to a lower rate is the P0.2802 per kWh decrease in the generation charge. It moved from P6.0505 per kWh to P5.7703 per kWh
This is because of lower energy cost from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market from which the cooperative obtained a portion of its power.
Discaya said systems loss charge, transmission charge, and subsidy rates also registered reductions of P0.0660 per kWh, P0.1428 per kWh, and P0.0006 per kWh, respectively.
“With the decrease on generation and transmission charges, the VAT on these charges also went down by P0.0124 per kWh,” he said, adding that Noceco’s distribution, supply, and metering charges remain unchanged despite the reduction in the overall electricity rate.
For the remaining areas in the north, Northern Negros Electric Cooperative will have yet to announce its power rates for this month.