The three electric cooperatives in Negros Occidental has announced slight increases in the residential rates for the month of June.
Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco), acting manager Ervin Stan Leo Ticar said that average residential rate for the billing month of June 2022 is P12.1171 per kWh, an increase of P0.9770 kWh, from last month’s rate of P11.1401 per kWh.
The hike can be attributed to the increase in generation, transmission and system loss charges caused by the surge in Psalm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC) fuel rate, increase in power cost and other pass through charges such as Value Added Tax, Ticar said.
He explained that the pass-through charges equivalent to P10.9305 per kWh of the total power rate include the Generation and Transmission charges, adjustments approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission and the government subsidies and taxes among others.
Ticar stressed that only P1.1866 per kWh of the power rate goes to (Ceneco) through Distribution, Supply, Metering (DSM) Charges and Reinvestment Fund for Sustainable Capital Expenditure (RFSC) for its administrative and operational services.
Since 2010, CENECO’s DSM and RFSC rate has not increased.
For every kWh consumed by residential consumers, roughly 10 to 14 percent of the total bill amount goes to Ceneco.
Ticar said that means, in monitoring the monthly electricity usage, consumers are advised to look at their kilowatt-hour consumption and not on the bill amount since it varies depending on the pass-through charges as shown above.
While the world market fuel prices remain volatile and may affect our electricity rates, Ceneco Board and Management continue to remind its electricity consumers to conserve energy to avoid paying high electricity bills.
Ceneco, the largest power utility, supplies electricity to the cities of Bacolod, Bago, Talisay and Silay, and the towns of Don Salvador Benedicto and Murcia.
For his part, Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative (Noceco) general manager Ray Bustamante said their residential rate now stood at P13.76 while it was only P12.36 last month or more than P1 higher.
Bustamante noted that the increase in power cost was triggered by increase in the generation charge, which moved from Php 7.1029 to Php 7.9968 per kWh.
He said the increase in the overall rates is also due to the higher power cost from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (Wesm) and KEPCO SPC Power Corporation (KSPC).
Notably, Bustamante said, despite the increase in Wesm price, the power cost of power purchased from the power supplier moderated the cost of the electricity from KSPC and PCPC resumed its normal operation from its scheduled outage last month.
The higher power cost from PCPC resulted in an increase in the average price of the generation rate, the Noceco official said.
Noceco supplies electricity to Pulupandan to Hinoba-an in southern Negros Occidental
Meanwhile, the Northern Occidental Electric Cooperative (Noneco), catering to electric consumers from from E.B. Magalona to San Carlos City is yet to release their power rates for June.