With summer heat rising, there’s another reason for urban Cebuanos to watch their electric bills.
An additional 19.38 centavos will be billed for every kilowatt-hour (kwh) used by customers of the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) to be reflected in the March billing.
This means an additional P38.76 in the monthly bill of a typical household using 200 kwh a month, said Veco corporate communications manager Theresa Gonzales-Sederiosa.
She said the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) recently directed all distribution utilities and electric cooperatives to collect an additional universal charge from customers starting this month.
The ERC approved the petition filed by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) to recover its stranded contract costs in February 19.
first time
“This is the first time the ERC has added the stranded contract charge under the Universal Charge,” Sederiosa said.
The charge can be seen in a Veco electric bill as a line item under the universal charge.
Cebu business group leaders lamented the increase as another burden.
In a statement, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Lito Maderazo said any additional cost of doing business in Cebu would discourage potential investors.
“Electricity costs cut across all industries sector including those that we are promoting like ICT (information communication technology), tourism and creative sector. What is needed is for government especially the ERC to take into consideration these factors and not view cost recovery as an independent issue,” said Maderazo.
The CCCI recently hosted the 27th Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers and Commerce and Industry conference in Cebu with over 400 delegates.
Cebu Business Club president Gordon Alan Joseph agreed, saying “price increases of our already high power costs will always be a barrier to invest.”
“I think the ERC must explain to the public how this increase was arrived at and for how long the increase will be charged,” he said.
Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Philip N. Tan wasn’t surprised by the development.
“What’s new? Rates will continue to go up for whatever reason they always have. The level of competition will have to dictate who will survive with the rising cost,” Tan said.
The ERC set the Universal Charge (UC) for the recovery of National Power Corp. (NPC) stranded contract costs (SCC) at 19.38 centavos per kwh.
It said this is 47 percent lower than the 36.66 per kwh proposal of Psalm which is tasked under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) to calculate the amount of Napocor’s stranded contracts costs and to liquidate the same.
napocor’s cost
“Psalm calculated Napocor’s stranded contract costs incurred from 2007-2010 at P74.298 billion. Upon review, the ERC approved only PP53.581 billion for recovery from the universal charge (UC),” said the ERC website.
ERC said the universal charge of 19.38 centavos per kwh will be imposed until they determine a new universal charge following the application of Psalm on or before March 15 of every year.
The previous universal charge rate was 11.88 centavos per kwh. With the additional charge, the total universal charge is 31.26 centavos per kwh.
This will be billed to all of Veco’s 346,983 customers.
About 306,085 of Veco’s consumers are households followed by 39,334 commercial establishments which use about 1 megawatt per month month and 1.430 industrial companies.