Negros Power customers will see a slight increase in their electricity rates this August, with the average residential rate set at ₱14.2787 per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
This is an increase of ₱0.1500 per kWh from July’s rate of ₱14.1287 per kWh, a press release from Negros Power said Tuesday, August 18.
The increase is mainly due to higher transmission and other charges, despite a decrease in the cost of generating electricity.
The Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) rate increased from ₱10.4213/kWh to ₱12.2420/kWh because of higher electricity demand and the temporary unavailability of several power plants. These conditions resulted in Yellow and Red Alerts in the Luzon and Visayas grids, causing electricity prices in the spot market to rise.
To help lessen the impact on customers, Negros Power is spreading the recovery of the higher WESM costs over five months, instead of collecting the full increase in a single billing month. Because of this staggered recovery, the generation charge actually decreased by ₱0.3364/kWh for August despite the higher WESM rate.
Meanwhile, transmission charges increased by ₱0.2593/kWh, mainly due to increases in transmission and ancillary services for reserve market charges.
The August rate also includes the implementation of the new Feed-in Tariff (FIT) rate of ₱0.3359/kWh, along with Real Property and Local Taxes for the third quarter.
For August, the average rates are ₱14.2787/kWh for residential customers, ₱14.3216/kWh for low-voltage customers, and ₱13.2520/kWh for high-voltage customers.
Overall, while the generation charge went down, higher transmission and other charges partly offset the reduction. This resulted in an overall increase of approximately ₱0.15 per kWh for residential customers this August.
Negros Power continues to manage the recovery of higher electricity costs over several months to help minimize the impact on customers’ monthly electricity bills, the press release said.*
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