Power rates on downtrend since January
By Alena Mae S. Flores – September 17, 2023, 8:55 pm
from manilastandard.net
Electricity rates have been on a downward trend since January 2023, the Department of Energy (DOE) said over the weekend.
“It is important to note the decreasing trend on electricity rates from the beginning of the year up to the previous month August due to the lower price of fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas,” DOE Undersecretary Rowena Guevara said.
Guevara said the government recently established databases for electricity rates in each distribution utility across the country.
She said the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) published the database of electricity rates to empower consumers with information on how their respective distribution utility is performing.
“We can see that from March to August, the electricity rates are going down… For Luzon, the electricity rates are lower than the national rates; Visayas rates are higher than the national rates and Mindanao rates are the lowest rates among private utilities,” Guevara said.
She said that for the electric cooperatives, Mindanao rates have the highest rates, followed by Luzon while Visayas has the lowest rate.
“We see Luzon to be lower than the country’s average electricity rates and Mindanao has the highest rates among the grid…In general, private distribution utilities have lower rates than electric cooperatives,” Guevara said.
Based on the data, average rates in the Philippines declined to P11.15 per kilowatt-hour in August from P11.69 per kWh in July, P12.26 per kWh in June, P12.05 per kWh in May, P12.51 per kWh in April and P13.61 per kWh in March.
“Summer has already ended so the rates have been going down,” Guevara said.
She said the rates of distribution firms vary depending on their supply sourcing, specifically the cost and the fuel type.
“Majority of their supply is coal, which has been going up that’s why electricity prices also went up. But if majority is sourced from renewable, it will not go up,” Guevara said.
