Electricity woes

LAST week’s announcement that the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) is reducing its May electricity cost to P11.183 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from April’s record high of P11.902 per kWh is welcome.

As always, Sulplicio Lagarde Jr., Ceneco’s general manager, exhorts us “to save electricity to avoid paying high power bills.”

This advice has long been superfluous due to high costs involved. We cannot afford to waste electricity. Ceneco is at or near the highest cost cooperative in the Philippines.

Since the Philippines has the highest electricity costs in ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) then we are truly unfortunate. The per kWh costs in other Asean nations are: East Timor P9.9, Singapore P7.9 Cambodia P7.8, Myanmar P5.7, Thailand P5.0, Laos P4.5, Malaysia P4.4, Vietnam P4.3, Indonesia P3.9.

Why is Ceneco’s price so high?

Ceneco adopted a policy of entering into bilateral contracts between 2010 and 2016 when the alternative buying electricity from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) would have been much more advantageous.

WESM’s average prices (the generation charges) have declined from P6.43 per kWh in 2010, P3.80 in 2011, P4.87 in 2012, P3.85 in 2013, P4.40 in 2014, P3.47 in 2015, and P2.84 in 2016.

One of the bilateral contracts which Ceneco signed with Kepco-Salcon in 2011 included penalty costs if we did not buy contracted electricity. Kepco-Salcon have invoked penalty costs of P232 million which a discredited Energy Regulatory Commission in June 2017 instructed Ceneco to obtain from its consumers. Ceneco has eventually capitulated to this doubtful order and it is now being applied to our monthly bills. Lagarde’s advice to tell us to keep our consumption down is irritating when we are expected to pay for electricity we did not need, did not want, did not ask for, and did not receive.

I hope Ceneco will properly explain the circumstances to its consumers, either by a leaflet accompanying our monthly bill and/or at the Annual General Meeting due to be held on June 30.

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Meanwhile, Panay Electric Cooperation (PECO) has been on a charm offensive (?) to explain some of its contested bills.

Last week, Senator Grace Poe mentioned that Senate may not renew PECO’s franchise due to expire next year. PECO made its application in November 2017 but, as far as I know, no qualified electricity distributor has made a bid. To ensure continuity, PECO may receive the go-ahead but not necessarily for the requested 25 years.

I also believe that the House of Representatives Committee on Legislative Franchises should also examine why PECO’s charges are higher than the charges applied to most electricity consumers in the Nation./PN

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