Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez expects much lower power rates for Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) in the following months.

This comes after Ceneco announced a drop in its residential power rates by P2.40 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in June.

“The power rate reduction is crucial as we move forward to provide relief, especially to consumers who can hardly make ends meet in these challenging times,” Benitez said in a statement over the weekend.

Ceneco will make adjustments to its residential power rates from P15.1632 per kWh to P12.7632 per kWh.

Benitez said the city government has been persistent in seeking measures to ensure the affordability of power.

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) granted Benitez’s urgent request for the approval of the power supply agreement between Ceneco and Energy Development Corporation (EDC), which will be seen to further drop power rates.

Under the agreement, EDC is required to provide replacement power to Ceneco, even during planned or unplanned outages, equivalent to the provisionally approved rate.

The Negros-based cooperative has a 20-megawatt 10-year supply contract with EDC at P5.56 per kWh value-added tax.

Benitez has also requested the temporary suspension of price increases in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) due to the red alert status announced by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines in recent months.

ERC said Ceneco buys almost 74 percent of its supply in the WESM./WDJ