The Department of Energy (DOE) has agreed to a plan being pushed by Mayor Alfredo Alberto “Albee” Benitez to bring down power rates in Bacolod City.
The DOE has verbally okayed his proposal, he is just waiting for an official reply so measures to lower power rates can be implemented, Benitez said at a Central Negros Electric Cooperative Consumers’ Assembly at the Acacia Hotel Function Hall in Bacolod City on Thursday, December 15.
“Hopefully we will be able to see a reduction of our power cost in the near future,” Benitez said.
Benitez, in an interview, said he has asked the DOE to allow the local government to aggregate all the power consumers of Bacolod as contestable customers.
Contestable customers are large end-users who are allowed to purchase power directly from suppliers, he said.
Once the Bacolod consumers are grouped together to become contestable customers they can directly deal with power generators in Negros for the purchase of electricity at lower rates, he said.
Negros Occidental is generating a lot of power through its solar farms and biomass power plants, “we want to deal directly with them on a negotiated basis”, Benitez said.
“They also want to deal directly with us and are willing to give rebates or discounts to help”, he said.
Benitez also wants the Electric Power Industry Reform Act amended to create more competition among power generators.
Former Commissioner Aina Magpale-Asirit of the Energy Regulatory Commission also spoke about “Understanding Your Electric Bill and Optimizing Power Cost” at the Consumer’s Assembly.
The rising cost of coal, gas, crude oil and the US dollar has been driving up electricity rates, she said.*