ELECTRIC consumers in Negros Occidental may incur higher bills as all three power distribution utilities in the province have higher rates this month.
The Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative (Noceco), catering to consumers in the south portion of the province from Pulupandan to Hinoba-an, has the highest increase of almost P1.17 per kilowatt hour (kWh).
From an overall electricity rate of P8.7561 per kWh in September, it went up to P9.9234 per kWh for October. This is the highest electricity rate registered by the cooperative since 2015.
Jonas Discaya, general manager of Noceco, said the main driver of the higher electricity rate this month is the P0.8302 per kWh increase in the generation charge.
It moved from P4.5796 to P5.4098 per kWh caused by higher generation charge of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) from which Noceco obtained a portion of its power supply, he said.
“WESM addresses the deficiency of our power requirement. As per law of supply and demand, since supply is deficient, prices in the spot market also increased,” Discaya said.
Noceco also attributed the higher generation rate to the implementation of the 10th to 17th Generation Rate Adjustment Mechanism (Gram), 15th to 16th Incremental Currency Exchange Rate Adjustment (Icera), and 1st to 5th Automatic Cost Recovery Mechanism (ACRM) True-up Adjustments pursuant to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) order and decision dated July 20, 2017.
These adjustments were filed by Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (Psalm), it added.
Aside from the generation charge, the systems loss charge and transmission charge also registered an increase of P0.1307 per kWh and P0.2068 per kWh, respectively.
The increase in transmission charge, meanwhile, is attributed to higher ancillary service charge of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
For Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco), consumers may still incur higher electricity bills this October even without the inclusion of P0.8 per kWh as unpaid unaccepted contract quantity with Kepco-Salcon Power Corp. (KSPC) in its latest rate computation.
Ceneco, catering to consumers in the cities of Bacolod, Bago, Talisay and Silay, and towns of Murcia and Salvador Benedicto, reported an increase of almost P1.02 per kWh.
From P10.0130 per kWh in September, it went up to P11.0280 per kWh.
The upward adjustment in Ceneco’s effective rate can be attributed to the increase in the generation charge of P0.4728, the cooperative said.
Increases of P0.1412 and PP0.0938 in transmission and systems loss charges, respectively, were also noted.
Another contributory factor to the rate increase is the P0.2220 per kWh recovery also for Gram and Icera of Psalm as ordered by the ERC.
“We would like to emphasize that the effective rate has nothing to do with the P232-million additional charges to be recovered by KSPC from Ceneco since no implementation of the order was made yet,” Ceneco president Roy Cordova said.
For the remaining cities and towns in the north portion of the province, Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (Noneco) has yet to determine its rate on October 20.
Its Corporate Planning Department manager Paulino Almedelia, however, said there is an indicative increase in generation and transmission charges resulting to a possible rate increase of P0.50 per kWh in this month’s billing.