CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Power consumers in MIndanao just have to carry the brunt of paying higher power bills.
This, as the Association of Mindanao Rural Electric Cooperative (AMRECO) warned electric consumers across Mindanao that power hike is inevitable high cost of power generation.
Amreco President Jose Raul Saniel said that based on their projections, there will be a sustained increase in the electric bills as coal and diesel fuel-based power plants operating cost rise due to international market instability and market volatility.
Saniel said that it is difficult to determine the amount of increase in the electric bills as different Distribution Utilities have different energy mixes in their generation suppliers.
“It is difficult to determine, like Zamboanga del Sur Electric Cooperative against other Cooperatives. They have different averages, but it is rising. Some are seeing an increase of 8 percent, some are 12 percent,” Saniel said.
Saniel added that Amreco has yet to aggregate their average cost per Kilowatt Hour. “Amreco and the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperative Association (Philreca) are now collating because it is only this month that the (electric cost) are skyrocketing,” Saniel said.
Atty Janeene Depay-Colingan, General Manager of Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association Inc. (Philreca) said that across the Philippines, Distribution Utilities have different charges per Kilowatt hour. Depay-Colingan said that the range is between 7.00 KWH to 20.00 KWH.
“We wanted that all electric cooperatives across the Philippines to quantify the average increase of electric bill,” Saniel said.
Saniel also added that also one of the reasons why there is a high cost of energy is the over-contracting of an electric cooperative in their power supply agreement. Over contracting occurs when an electric cooperative has more power supply than what it needed.
But Saniel added that this is also based on supply planning and forecasting of a distribution utility, “You don’t want to have a thin supply of electricity, otherwise, when there could be blackouts in your area when the power grid has low supply,” Saniel added.
“Let’s say two years you have an oversupply, but our load requirement is rising also, so your supply now is low, so you again require bidding for a supply,” Saniel said.
Ralph Paguio, Vice President of Cagayan de Oro Electric Power and Light Corporation (CEPALCO) said that Coal prices have gone up not only in the Philippines but all over the world. “Prices have already peaked, and we hope it will no longer increase further,” Paguio said.
“Most of the electric rates have gone up in Mindanao because about 80 percent of our energy is generated using coal,” Paguio added.
Paguio added that power rates in Mindanao have been increasing gradually now and hopes that this will plateau, “But this depends on the demand for fuel. Because Russia reduces fuel supplies to the European Union, other countries’ fuel prices have gone up because the EU is stockpiling fuel in preparation for the winter season,” Paguio added.
“Consequently, the current substitute such as Liquefied Natural Gas and Coal has also gone up,” Paguio added.
Paguio said that this is a kind of situation where fuel buyers have the money but no supply. “Having no power will plunge Mindanao into the dark ages again as in the past. The difference now is that it is not only the Philippines that is affected but all other countries, We need to use energy more efficiently,” Paguio said.
