Bacolod mayor urges ERC to act on Ceneco-EDC power supply agreement

Source: Manila Bulletin

BACOLOD CITY - Mayor Albee Benitez has urged the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to act on the power supply agreement between the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) and the Energy Development Corp. (EDC) to address the strong clamor of consumers in this city regarding the high power rates of Ceneco in recent months.

Benitez was referring to the joint petition filed by Ceneco and EDC on March 15, 2024 under ERC Case No. 2024-038 RC entitled "In the Matter of the Application for the Approval of the Power Supply Agreement between Ceneco and EDC, with Motion for Confidential Treatment of Information and Prayer for Provisional Authority or Interim Relief."

Benitez, in a letter dated May 27 addressed to ERC chairperson and chief executive officer Monalisa Dimalanta, said that the ERC's inaction on the agreement is one of the reasons why power rates increased in this city.

The mayor said that he learned about this after a thorough dialogue with Ceneco officials on the issue.

"Given that more than 60 days have passed since the filing of this petition clearly show that ERC has not acted on it timely resulting to intolerable increase in our power rates. Considering the extreme urgency of the situation, we beg the indulgence of the ERC to favorably act on the said joint petition expeditiously," Benitez said.

Benitez said that ERC has temporarily suspended the operation of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) when systems operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) declared a red alert, and that they can expect power prices to go down as the rate freeze is implemented.

However, he noted that the same has not been implemented in the recent months since the suspension.

"This move of ERC to suspend WESM is very timely and imperative now to provide relief to our already suffering consumers in Bacolod City due to exorbitant electricity bills as of the moment," Benitez said.

Two weeks ago, Ceneco announced an increase in the residential rate for May 2024 at P15.1632 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from the previous month's rate of P11.9566 per kWh due to a significant increase in electricity generation costs and market prices.

Ceneco earlier explained that the main contributor to the rate hike for May is a 31.96 percent increase in the generation charge resulting from a rise in the WESM price from P8.0879 per kWh to P12.6706 per kWh.

Benitez had earlier asked the Department of Energy (DOE) to impose a price cap to temporarily halt increasing power rates.