BENECO FEBRUARY POWER RATES DOWN; Consumers can spend more this valentines month
By: Laarni S. Ilagan
Consumers of the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) will pay less in their power bills this February.
BENECO’s computed February rate for residential consumers is at P9.9796/kWh, representing a decrease of P0.1455/kwh compared to January’s rate of P10.1251/kWh.
“The reduction of P0.1455 per kWh will mean P14.55 savings for every 100 kWh electric consumption for residential consumers,” Ivory Paatan, BENECO’s rates analyst, explained.
Not only residential consumers will enjoy less power cost, but BENECO’s commercial, industrial, and public buildings (government) consumers will also pay less for their February billing.
BENECO’s commercial low voltage is at P9.1752/kWh from P9.3234/kWh (P0.1482/kwh decrease); commercial high voltage at P7.9652/kWh from P8.1155/kWh (P0.1503/kwh decrease); industrial rate at P9.1438/kWh from P9.2921/kWh (P0.1482/kwh decrease); public building low voltage at P9.1474/kWh from P9.2956/kWh (P0.1482/kwh decrease); and public building high voltage at P7.9374/kWh compared to January’s rate of P8.0877/kWh (P0.1503/kwh decrease),” Paatan elaborated.
The computed across-the-board decrease for all consumers for February compared to last month’s rate was attributed to the reduction of lifeline rate, senior citizen discount rate, and generation system charge rate caused by pilferage recovery for January amounting to P665,072.34 from three (apprehended) accounts, Fraiser Angayen, Non-Network Services Department (NNSD) manager, explained further.
“The unexpected decrease in rates is a pleasant surprise, given the anticipation of an increase due to the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) directive to resume collecting the Feed-in-Tariff Allocation of P0.0364 for all electricity consumers in the country.,” Paatan shared.
FIT-ALL is collected from all consumers of electricity nationwide by distribution utilities like BENECO. It is remitted to the National Transmission Corp. (TRANSCO) of the national government. Eligible renewable energy developers can withdraw from this fund.
Despite the increase due to the resumption of FIT-ALL collection, BENECO’s February rate is still lower compared to our January power rate, Angayen added.
The significant decrease in a number of lifeline rate beneficiaries following the implementation of Republic Act 11552 also reduced the amount of lifeline rate subsidy being collected from the co-op’s non-lifelines. BENECO’s Lifeline Rate beneficiaries of 80,794 in December 2023 decreased to only 861 in January 2024.
The drastic decrease in lifelines coupled with the increased efforts of BENECO’s anti-pilferage team in their apprehension activities that resulted in the payment of three big loaders significantly lowered the power rates for February and gave enough cushion for the co-op’s consumers with the collection of the FIT-ALL.
BENECO’s meter readers start reading meters by February 10, 2024. ***LSI
