• CHERYL G. CRUZ
The Northern Negros Electric Cooperative said May 21 that its average residential rate this billing month of May decreased by P1.7807 per kilowatt-hour.
This means that Noneco member-consumers from Victorias, Cadiz, Sagay, San Carlos, Escalante, Manapla, E.B. Magalona, Toboso, and Calatrava will be paying P13.2898/kWh from last month’s rate of P15.0705/kWh.
The substantial decrease was due to the reduced pricing of electricity traded in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), and the P1.0706/kWh decrease in the generation charge, or from P8.0530 in April to P6.9824/kWh in May, Noneco said in the advisory.
Transmission charge was also down by P0.4277/kWh, or from P2.0979 last month to the current P1.6752/kWh.
The lower transmission rate was due a significant reduction in both the transmission wheeling rate charged by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines for its primary service of delivering power, and the Ancillary Services (AS) rate, or the pass-through cost for power supplied by AS providers to stabilize the grid during power supply-demand imbalance.
The decrease in the average residential rate of Noneco followed earlier announcements of rate reductions from Negros Power and the Central Negros Electric Cooperative, also due to lower WESM pricing and generation charges.
Negros Power, which serves the highly-urbanized Bacolod, and neighboring Talisay, Silay, Bago, Murcia, and Don Salvador Benedicto, had said that its rate for May decreased by P0.6605/kWh, or from P12.3563 in April to P11.6958/kWh this billing month.
Noceco’s rate, meanwhile, reduced by P3.5842/kWh, which means that customers from Pulupandan, San Enrique, Valladolid, Pontevedra, La Castellana, Moises Padilla, Isabela, Hinigaran, Binalbagan, Himamaylan, Kabankalan, Ilog, Candoni, Cauayan, Sipalay, Hinoba-an, and La Carlota City, will pay P12.0262/kWh this May, from the P15.6104/kWh in April. | CGC
