ALL three electric cooperatives in Negros Occidental are increasing their residential power rates for the month of July.
The Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco), covering cities of Bacolod, Bago, Talisay and Silay and towns of Murcia and Salvador Benedicto, announced a 50-centavo increase this month -- to P10.34 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from last month’s P9.84.
This is equivalent to an additional P50.01 for residential consumers with energy consumption of 100 kWh.
Chuchie Destriza, Ceneco general manager, said the adjustment in the rate can be attributed to an increase of 8.37 percent in the generation system charge.
Destriza said the increase was due to the scheduled maintenance and forced outage of Kepco-Salcon Power Corp. power plant after a fire damaged some of its facilities.
The development tends to increase the market price due to power shortage, she added.
Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative (Noceco), which serves electricity consumers in the south, from Pulupandan down to Hinobaan, announced an increase of P1.14 per kWh.
From P9.82 per kWh in June, Noceco’s residential rate this month is up to P10.95.
Noceco general manager Jonas Discaya said the increase is due to the almost P1 per kWh adjustment in the generation charge.
Transmission and systems loss charges also registered with increases of P0.0032 per kWh and P0.13 per kWh, respectively, he added.
Discaya said the increase is due to higher Wholesale Electricity Spot Market exposure and consequently higher generation charges.
Another power cooperative, the Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (Noneco), which is covering the remaining cities and municipalities in the northern part of the province, has also increased its power rate by almost P0.80 due to similar reasons.
The three electric cooperatives reiterated that the generation and transmission charges are pass-through charges being billed to the distribution utilities by their power suppliers and transmission service providers.