- CHERYL G. CRUZ
Electricity consumers being served by the Central Negros Electric Cooperative will be paying P11.7856 per kilowatt-hour of power consumption this billing month of February.
The Ceneco management said this afternoon, Feb. 16, that its average residential rate increased by P0.9506/kWh, from last month’s rate of P10.8350/kWh.
“The P0.9506/kWh rate hike is mainly attributed to total generation charges due to the increase in the bilateral contract price of P7.9258/kWh, from P6.9629/kWh,” Ceneco acting general manager, Atty. Arnel Lapore, explained in a press release.
He added that Ceneco also resumed the collection of the FIT-All (Feed-in Tariff Allowance) of P0.0364/kWh, as per a resolution from the Energy Regulatory Commission. This is a uniform charge billed on all on-grid consumers every month, and utilized as incentive to power generators to develop more environment-friendly energy sources.
The FIT-All collection was suspended since December 2022 to provide relief to consumers amid the rising level of inflation and cost of living. But the ERC lifted the suspension, in Resolution No. 01 dated Jan. 16, since “there is a looming deficit in the projected FIT-All Fund, as it was used up during the more than one year collection suspension.”
Lapore, meanwhile, said the start of the collection of P0.0124/kWh real property tax also contributed to the increase. This levy will be imposed “for the next 12 months or until the full amount has been fully recovered.”
This is the second month of increase this year. In the January billing, Ceneco announced a P0.0656/kWh hike, from the December residential rate of P10.7694/kWh./CGC
