MEMBER-consumers of Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) may incur higher electricity bills this month as the power distribution utility increases its rates by about P0.52 per kilowatt hour (kWh).
Ceneco caters to the largest number of electric consumers in the province, including cities of Bacolod, Bago, Talisay and Silay, and towns of Murcia and Salvador Benedicto.
Ceneco Corporate Planning Division Manager Engineer Leomel Tambanillo, at the sidelines of the monthly transparency meeting held at the cooperative’s Board Room in Bacolod City yesterday, said the utility’s current power rates are P11.7019 and P11.4015 per kWh for “affected and unaffected consumers,” respectively.
The cooperative earlier explained that “affected consumers” pertain to electricity consumers who are affected by the recovery of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (Psalm).
Also, they are covered by the adjustments made by Kepco Salcon Power Corporation (KSPC) and Energreen Development Corporation.
“Unaffected consumers,” on the other hand, are those who were not using electricity within the said relevant period but also covered by adjustments for KSPC and Energreen Development Corporation.
Tambanillo said the previous rate for “affected consumers” is P11.1830 per kWh thus, there will be an increase of P0.5189 per kWh.
For “unaffected consumers,” there will be an increase of P0.5223 per kWh this month as May’s rate is P10.8792 per kWh., he said.
“The increase in rates is mainly attributed to higher consumption,” he said, adding that there is also an additional P0.06 to P0.07 per kWh feed-in tariff (FIT) allowance ordered by the National Transmission Commission (Transco).
For generation alone, Ceneco reported a total cost of P6.7118 per KWh in June, or an increase of P0.1181 per kWh from only P6.5937 per kWh in May.
In terms of amount, the total power generated by the utility from various generation utilities including pilferages and recoveries totaled to almost P531.26 million.
“This is not because of a higher cost of electricity being purchased by Ceneco, but more on the surge in consumption demand,” Tambanillo said, adding that “it might be an offshoot of huge power consumption during the just-concluded summer season.”
There are also upward movements in transmission, systems loss, and other charges contributing to the overall increase in power rates for this month, he pointed out.
In terms of adjustments, Psalm’s recovery for June is amounted to P0.2940 per kWh, mainly for its Generation Rate Adjustment Mechanism (Gram), Incremental Currency Exchange Rate (Icera), and Automatic Cost Recovery Mechanism (ACRM) True-up Adjustment.
Under Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Order dated June 20, 2017, it will be implemented within the relevant period covering January 2007 to April 2010.
For KSPC, the adjustment to recover the differential billing is equivalent to a monthly rate of P0.0817 per kWh for 50 months. Another recovery from Energreen has resulted in an impact of P0.0486 per kWh.*