THE Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) has announced yesterday, October 18, that their average residential rate for October is P15.4337 per kilowatt hour (kWh), or a decrease of at least 26 centavos from last month’s rate of P15.6985 per kWh.
In a statement, Ceneco Acting Manager Ervin Stan Ticar said the decrease is attributed to the net reduction in generation, transmission and systems loss charges.
Ticar said this is because Ceneco availed of fuel discount from one of its power supplier as well as decrease in Feed-In-Tariff (FIT)-ALL rate, Lifeline and Senior Citizen Subsidies, generation rate adjustment mechanism and incremental currency exchange rate adjustment (Gram - Icera) adjustments and value added tax.
The pass-through charges equivalent to P14.2471 per kWh of the total power rate include the generation and transmission charges, Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC)-approved adjustments, government subsidies and taxes.
Only P1.1866 per kWh of the power rate goes to Ceneco through Distribution, Supply, Metering (DSM) Charges and Reinvestment Fund for Sustainable Capex (RFSC) for its administrative and operational services.
Since 2010, Ceneco's DSM and RFSC rate have not increased.
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 continue to increase, hence adversely affecting electricity rates, Ceneco Board and Management continue to remind its electricity consumers to conserve energy to avoid paying high electricity bills.
Ceneco supplies power to the cities of Bacolod, Bago, Silay and Talisay, and the towns of Don Salvador and Murcia.
Meanwhile, the Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative (Noceco) said that its electricity rate for this month is now pegged at P16.4677 per kWh from P14.9491 in September, or an increase of P1.52.
In a press statement, the electric cooperative explained that the increase is “driven by the higher generation charge,” which increased by P1.2034 per kWh, or P10.22 from last month's P9.01 per kWh.
There was also a significant increase in the cost of power purchased from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (Wesm), from P7.9053 per kWh last month to P9.3499 per kWh this October, or a hike of P1.44 per kWh, it added.
The charges of Palm Concepcion Power Corporation, where Noceco is getting part of its supply, also increased from P14.5126 per kWh in the previous month to P14.9699 per kWh this month.
Noceco said Kepco-Salcon Power Corporation (KSPC) has also started delivering power under the 10-month Emergency Power Supply Agreement, at P10.3012 kWh.
Noceco supplies electricity to the south, from Pulupandan to Hinoba-an.*