BAGUIO CITY – Power rates being charged by the legitimate Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) from its increasing number of member-consumer-owners (MCOs) slightly dropped during the July billing period compared to the rates that were charged from them last month.
Based on the comparative data of the power rates released by BENECO, the residential power rates billed to the MCOs this July was P9.4695 per kilowatt hour compared to the P9.5616/kwh residential power rates last month.
The slight reduction on power rates for the July billing period was an offshoot of the reduction on the transmission charge from P0.8590/kwh in June to only P0.8334/kwh this month and the systems loss charge from P0.5938/kwh in June to P0.5935/kwh in July.
However, the monthly generation charged remained stagnant at P4.9502/kwh despite the reported uncontrolled prices of coal in the global market where the same is being used to produce power by the coal fired power plants operating in the different parts of the country.
On the other hand, BENECO’s commercial power rates for this month also dropped by P0.0994/kwh from P8.8494/kwh last month to P8.7500/kwh.
The electric cooperative’s industrial power rates similarly decreased in July by P0.0994/kwh from the P8.8180/kwh last month to P8.7186/kwh in July.
Also decreasing by P0.0994/kwh for the present billing period is the public building low voltage power rates from P8.8216/kwh in June to the P8.7222/kwh in July.
The power rates for streetlights for the July billing period decreased by P0.0994/kwh from last month’s P8.8494/kwh to this month’s P8.7500/kwh.
For the commercial high voltage power rates for the present billing period, it was reduced by 0.0637/kwh from June’s P7.2692/kwh to July’s P7.2055/kwh.
Lastly, the public building high voltage power rates of BENECO decreased by P0.0637/kwh this month from the P7.2414/kwh last month to the present month’s rate of P7.1777/kwh.
BENECO is able to maintain its identity as one of the rural electric cooperatives in the country that charges its consumers with the cheapest power rates that is comparable to private power distribution utilities and cooperatives that have much larger number of consumers and wider area of coverage.
Moreover, BENECO is able to sustain its exemplary performance in the power industry even with the present leadership crisis besetting its existence as one of the country’s most outstanding rural electric cooperative following the controversial appointment issued by the Board of Administrators of the National Electrification Administration (NEA) on the position of general manager which undermined the appointment made by the BENECO Board of Directors for Engr. Melchor S. Licoben to be the qualified and competent general manager..
The decrease in the power rates for the July billing period came after a successive month of slight increases in the power rates that started early this year.
