BAGUIO CITY – Member-consumer-owners (MCOs) of the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) continue to lower power rates with the reported P0.433 per kilowatt-hour (KHW) reduction on their power bills right at the start of the year despite the continuing leadership impasse being engineered by the National Electrification Administration (NEA) to force an unqualified applicant to be the general manager.
Based on the comparative power bills of consumers, the January residential rate of the electric cooperative is P9.3203/kwh compared to the December residential rate of P9.3636/kwh.
The decrease in the January power bills of consumers was a result of the decline in the systems loss charge and the Value Added Tax (VAT) on the systems loss charge that offset the increase in the transmission charge.
For January, the systems loss charge of BENECO was computed to be P0.5229/kwh compared to the P0.5340/kwh systems loss charge that was charged by the electric cooperative from its consumers last December.
On the other hand, BENECO’s January transmission charge was P0.7417/kwh compared to its December transmission charge of P0.7181/kwh.
Further, BENECO’s January commercial low voltage rate of P8.5704/kwh is also lower than its December commercial rate of P8.6073/kwh.
The commercial high voltage rate of P7.1296/kwh in January is also lower than the P7.1876/kwh commercial high voltage rate charged to consumers in December.
BENECO’s January industrial rate was P8.5390/kwh compared to its December’s similar charge of P8.5759/kwh that was charged to the consumers.
The public building low voltage rate in January which is P8.5426/kwh is also lower compared to the December rate of P8.5795/kwh while the public building high voltage rate of P7.1018/kwh in January is also lower compared to the smP7.1598/kwh in December last year.
BENECO’s streetlight rate in January also decreased to P8.5704/kwh in January compared to the P8.6073/kwh in December.
BENECO’s generation charge for January which was P4.9500/kwh is slightly lower compared to the P4.9501/kwh generation charge that was reflected on the bill of the consumers in their December power bills.
Under the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), concerned government agencies were mandated to unbundle the power rates to reflect the true cost of power and for purposes of transparency.
The items in the power bills of consumers are divided into the so-called pass through and pass on charges. The pass-through charges are the ones that are directly handled by regulatory agencies and generation and transmission companies such as the generation, transmission charges and the value added tax while the pass on charges include the distribution, supply and metering charge.
Power rates started to increase in early 2021 after businesses in the different parts of the world started to operate following the implementation of lockdowns to combat the spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) that affected the country in early 2020. By Hent