Friday, April 07, 2017
By Erwin P. Nicavera
THE Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) asked the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) to explain the series of increases in the utility’s power rates.
In a letter dated April 6, MBCCI chief executive officer Frank Carbon requested Ceneco general manager Sulpicio Lagarde Jr. to inform the business group the reasons for the P1.68 per kilowatt hour (kWh) increase in generation charge.
Data obtained by MBCCI showed that generation charge in March was P6.69 per kWh, which is 33.4 percent higher than the almost P5.02 per kWh in January.
“The 33.4 percent increase in generation charge is quite substantial,” Carbon said.
The business group is also seeking the explanation of Ceneco on the systems loss charge increase of 30 percent, which they considered worrisome.
MBCCI pointed out that based on a consumer’s electric bill, from P0.8614 in January, the cooperative’s systems loss went up to P1.1202 in March.
“We want to know the reasons for this accumulated increase in generation and systems loss charges,” Carbon told Lagarde, adding that “if there are lapses on the part of Ceneco, please inform us of the remedy you are taking to rectify the situation that puts consumers to disadvantage.”
In its letter, MBCCI further said that the power distribution utility’s peso rate per kWh of P11.22 in March is bigger than those of Panay and Cebu.
This situation is deterrent to potential investments to come in and existing businesses to expand, its leader said.
Carbon added that higher power rates negatively impact businesses as these are additional production costs, on top of bigger transportation cost due to oil price increases and operational cost brought by wage increase of employees in the region.
“Many students had just graduated thus, there is a need to create more jobs. It is something that can be addressed by having more investments and business expansion,” he added.
Earlier, Ceneco announced the P1.66 per kWh increase in its power rate for March billing. From February’s P9.5038 per kWh, it rose to P11.1669 per kWh last month.
Lagarde said the upward adjustment in their effective rate can be attributed to the increase in the generation charge of P1.2595 and system loss charge of P0.1774.
The movements in foreign currency exchange also contributed to the rate increase, affecting fuel cost of generation utilities like coal-fired power plants, he added.
