Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said on Monday, March 20, that he expects Central Negros Electric Cooperative’s (CENECO) power rates to further drop.
CENECO’s P13.6716/kWh power rate for March is P2.63 lower than the P16.2972/kWh in November, he said.
Benitez said since October last year he has been actively pursuing ways to bring down electricity rates in Bacolod City.
In January he wrote the Energy Regulatory Commission and CENECO questioning the two different rates coming from Palm Concepcion Power Corp. and asked if PCPC was charging the cooperative the right rate, Benitez pointed out.
He said the PCPC owner thanked him for the letter because through it they were able to renegotiate with their coal supplier in Indonesia to lower its rate.
“We will see a little bit more reductions as we start exploring different areas for our power supply”, Benitez said.
Benitez pointed out that in principle he has been given approval to directly deal with Negros based green power generators for friendly rates.
The next step is to call for a power summit with the power generators in the island, he said.
“Our transition to green power is looking better and better,” he said.
Hopefully CENECO will be one of the first to be fully dependent on green power, he said.
On the opposition of some groups to the unsolicited proposal of MORE Electric and Power Corporation and Manila Electric Co. for a joint venture agreement with CENECO, Benitez said it is the prerogative of the consumers’ groups to do so.
He said for the JVA to be acceptable, it should be able to lower power rates by engaging local generators, address the problem of blackouts and use green power.*