P0.40/kwh VECO rate hike by April

CEBU, Philippines - Power consumers within the Visayan Electric Company’s franchise area should brace for a P0.40-per-kilowatt-hour increase in their electricity bill starting April 2015.

Lyndon Jayme, VECO assistant vice president for utilities economics, said the hike is due to end of the firm’s contract with the National Power Corporation by December 25.

“Napocor is already privatized and our contract with them will no longer be renewed. So we have to look for other power suppliers,” said Jayme during the AGIO-7 forum yesterday.

Napocor supplies about a third (120 megawatts) of the VECO franchise’s 450-megawatt power demand per day (during peak hours). With Napocor out of the picture, VECO is eyeing at least five different power producers.

Jayme, however, clarified that the P0.40/kwh increase does not go to VECO since the additional amount is in the generation side or with the power generators.

 VECO does not generate power, it simply acts as a distribution utility enterprise.

“Ako lang i-klaro nga di VECO ang mo-increase sa power rate but sa generation rate ni. Mo kulekta ra mi sa increase but the increase does not go to us” Jayme clarified.

The current generation rate is pegged at P5.40/kWh to P5.40/kWh and this will further increase to P5.90/kWh or an increased of .40/kWh by April.

Jayme said that for a residential consumer who is using 200kWh per month, this would mean an increase of at least P80.00 per month.

Since Napocor no longer supplies power for VECO, in effect the .8/kwh reduction in the electricity bill under the Power Reduction Act will no longer be included in the bill.

 Jayme said that under the Electric Power Reform Act of 2001 it mandated that those distribution utilities who are supplied with Napocor shall have such discount or reduction to its residential consumers.

“We can expect nga wa nay reduction sa electricity bill kay wa na man unyay power supply coming from Napocor ang VECO,” said Jayme.

Jayme cited that for a residential customer consuming 200kwh per month, this would mean a power bill reduction of P18/ month but since there will be no more reduction, the said amount will be added in the bill.

Aside from this power rate increases, power consumers all over the country, including in Cebu will be paying a higher power rate starting January 2015.

This follows after the Energy Regulatory Commission provisionally approved the Feed-In Tariff Allowance of P0.0406/kWh effective in the January 2015 billing of all on-grid electricity consumers.

Jayme explained earlier that this increase will not go to VECO but to TRANSCO, who will also remit the amount to the respective renewable energy developers.

He further explained that with the approval of the P0.0406/kWh FIT-All, for every 200 kWh usage for instance, this would mean an additional P8 in the customers electric bill.

The FIT-All is a uniform charge akin to the Universal Charge that is imposed on all On-Grid electricity consumers who are supplied with electricity through the distribution or transmission network. — (FREEMAN)