Albayanos face higher power rate and rhetoric outages

By: Raydes Barcia

Legazpi City —The Albay Power and Energy Corp. (APEC), a private power distributor and subsidiary of San Miguel Corporation Global Power Holdings will be imposing power rate anew to more than 200,000 power consumers here. Power rates up in July as generation charge rises.

The 205,000 power consumers in Albay will be charged of 𝐏 𝟏𝟖.𝟑𝟗𝟗𝟗 per kWh this month from 𝐏𝟏𝟓.𝟕𝟐𝟑𝟑 per kWh in June.

The overall rate for typical residential consumers inched up by 𝐏𝟐.𝟔𝟕𝟔𝟔 per kWh to 𝐏𝟏𝟖.𝟑𝟗𝟗𝟗 per kWh from 𝐏𝟏𝟓.𝟕𝟐𝟑𝟑 per kWh in June.  

While commercial consumers overall rate increased by 𝐏𝟐.𝟔𝟕𝟔𝟔 to 𝐏𝟏𝟕.𝟒𝟏𝟔𝟑 /kwh from 𝐏𝟏𝟒.𝟕𝟑𝟗𝟕; and for high voltage consumers increased by 𝐏𝟐.𝟔𝟔𝟔𝟓 to 𝐏𝟏𝟔.𝟏𝟒𝟓𝟔/kwh from 𝐏𝟏𝟑.𝟒𝟕𝟗𝟏 in June. 

The APEC management also said in a statement that a rsidential consumers consuming 200 kWh can expect their total bill to increase by around 𝐏𝟓𝟑𝟓.𝟑𝟐 for the month of July. 

The higher charges from Independent Power Producers (IPP’s) and Electricity Spot Market prompted an increase in generation charge of 𝐏𝟐.𝟎𝟕𝟏𝟏. For the month of July, the average price of WESM went up by almost 𝐏𝟒.𝟕𝟎𝟐𝟗 while SMEC charged APEC .𝟎𝟗𝟖𝟖𝟑 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐬. 

Meanwhile coal prices also went up by an average of 19% which attributed to higher IPP charges, the management said.  

Aside from the generation charge, the transmission charge slightly hiked by .𝟎𝟏𝟎𝟏 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐬 per kWhr. 

The generation charge in July rose to 𝐏𝟏𝟏.𝟗𝟏𝟕𝟎 per kWh from 𝐏 𝟗.𝟖𝟒𝟓𝟗 per kWh the previous month, likewise prices at Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) remained elevated.  

“Therefore, electricity rates are expected to increase as the world market fuel prices rises. Thus, consumers are advised to conserve energy to avoid paying high electricity bills.”