THE Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) has announced a drop of P0.3685 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in its residential power rate for this month's billing.
From P11.5038 per kWh in March, the power rate for April dropped to P11.1353 per kWh.
The power distribution utility 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 acting manager and project supervisor Danny Pondevilla, in an advisory, said the decrease can be attributed to the reduction in generation, transmission and systems loss charges.
The cooperative also noted a decrease in other pass-through charges such as Generation Rate Adjustment Mechanism (Gram) and Incremental Currency Exchange Rate Adjustment (Icera) adjustments and value-added tax (VAT), he added.
Ceneco's overall pass-through charges for April are P9.9487 per kWh compared to P10.3172 in March.
The advisory stated that only P1.1866 per kWh of the power rates goes to the cooperative through Distribution, Supply, Metering (DSM) charges and Reinvestment Fund for Sustainable Capex (RFSC) for its administrative and operational services.
It said since 2010, Ceneco's DSM and RFSC rates have not increased.
Ceneco Board and management continue to remind its electricity consumers to conserve to avoid paying high electricity bills, it added.
The Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (Noneco), on the other hand, has a higher power rate for this month.
Catering to electric consumers in the northern part of the province, from EB Magalona to San Carlos City, the utility announced an increase of P0.8778 per kWh.
From last month's P10.2872 per kWh, it moved up to P11.1651 per kWh in April.
The cooperative said the upward adjustment is due to the increase in cost of power purchased from Wholesale Electricity Market (Wesm).
From an average price of P3.1638 per kWh in March, the Wesm price moved to P6.6032 per kWh this month.
Noneco, in an advisory, also dismissed claims that it keeps on collecting and increasing the rate without bases.
It pointed out that the price of power in the market depends on various factors including the "law of supply and demand" as well as "price offer" of power generators.
The cooperative said that for April, the consumption is higher due to hotter weather and many power generation utilities have shut down because of unplanned plant outages.
"Noneco cannot just impose a rate. It is based on the template, or the Uniform Reportorial Requirement (URR), provided by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC)," it said, stressing that the rate is dictated by the market price.
Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative (Noceco) earlier announced an increase of almost P1.37 kWh in its residential power rate this month.
The power distribution utility, catering to electric consumers in the southern portion of the province, from Pulupandan to Hinoba-an, has a prevailing rate of P10.2921 per kWh from the previous month’s P8.9242 per kWh.
Noceco, in an advisory, said the main driver of the higher electricity rate this month is the P1.1736 per kWh increase in the generation charge, which moved from P4.3407 to P5.5143 per kWh.
The upward movement in generation cost is attributed to the increase of P2.7034 per kWh from Wesm.
The current average price of Wesm is P5.2745 per kWh compared to its previous month cost of P2.5711 per kWh.
There’s also an increase of P0.0167 per kWh in its Power Supply Agreement (PSA) with Kepco Salcon Power Corporation (KSPC).
Noceco said the current price of KSPC is P6.0873 per kWh compared to P6.0706 per kWh in March.
Another factor contributing to higher generation cost is the P0.3459 per kWh increase in its PSA with Palm Concepcion Power Corporation.
The current price is P6.4653 per kWh compared to its previous month cost of P6.1194 per kWh, the cooperative said.
Other factors that contributed to the overall increase in rate included systems loss rate which rose by P0.1316 per kWh; VAT on generation - P0.0965 per kWh increase; VAT on transmission - P0.0029 per kWh increase; and subsidy rates - P0.0173 per kWh increase.