By Erwin Nicavera/PNA
BACOLOD CITY — All three electric cooperatives in Negros Occidental have reduced power rates for the month of December.
The Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco), which covers Bacolod and its neighboring cities of Bago, Talisay and Silay and municipalities of Murcia and Don Salvador Benedicto, first announced a decrease of PHP0.69 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from PHP11.87/kWh in November to PHP11.18/kWh this month.
Ceneco general manager Sulpicio Lagarde Jr. said they have not purchased the peak volume of power for the period amid cold weather.
He also noted the reduction of the prices in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
The Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative (Noceco), which serves consumers in southern Negros, posted a rate reduction of almost P0.78/kWh in December.
This month, it went down to PHP10.2394 per kWh from PHP11.0184 per kWh last month.
In an advisory, Noceco general manager Jonas Discaya said the main driver for the lower rate for December is the P0.6065/kWh decrease in the generation charge.
In November, generation charge was P5.6424/kWh, but dropped to P5.0359/kWh this month.
Discaya attributed the reduced rate to the lower charge of WESM from which Noceco obtains a portion of its power supply.
He added that with the scheduled outage of Kepco-Salcon Power Corp. (KSPC), a share of its power supply from the Cebu-based generator was provided by WESM.
The lower electricity rate of WESM resulted in the reduced average price of the generation rate, Discaya said.
The systems loss charge and subsidy rates also dropped by PHP0.1044/kWh and PHP0.0121/kWh, respectively, as well as value-added tax charges at PHP0.1049/kWh.
The Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (Noneco) has yet to compute its final power rate for the month, but it also expects a decrease of about PHP0.50/kWh.
In November, its power rate was PHP11.56/kWh.
