The Davao Light and Power Company, Inc., (Davao Light) is implementing a refund of pass-through charges giving residential customers a one-time refund of P3.3759 per kilowatt hour energy consumption for the August 11, 2023 to September 10, 2023 billing.
Rodger Velasco, president and chief operating officer of Davao Light, announced the refund during Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City Davao on Monday. He said a residential customer who consumes 200 kWh can receive a refund of P675 for the said billing cycle.
Velasco explained that it is due to the over-recoveries of pass-through charges from January to June 2023.
The downtrend in the cost of electricity that started in January until June this year resulted in over-recoveries in the amount collected by Davao Light for the six months.
“This is in compliance with ERC Resolution Series of 2022 nga nagmando sa amoa nga i-refund namo ang kadtong mga over-recoveries ug mu collect mi ug under-recoveries. Tungod ni sa nagkaubos na ang presyo sa kuryente ug didto na gikan sa January hangtod July,” he said.
Velasco is referring to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Resolution No. 14 Series of 2022 also known as “A Resolution Adopting the Revised Rules Governing the Automatic Cost Adjustment and True-Up Mechanisms and Corresponding Confirmation Process for Distribution Utilities,” which revises the rules on over and under recovery of pass-through charges collected by distribution utilities.
Pass-through charges come from generation and transmission charges that Davao Light collects and pays to power suppliers and the transmission operator respectively while over-recoveries, along with under-recoveries are natural occurrences caused by the difference or time gap in the billing schedules and rates used by the power suppliers to bill Davao Light and the billing schedules and rates used by Davao Light to bill its customers.
“Kani among produkto nga kuryente imo pa man gud ni kunsumuhon una ka mubayad. So naay lag sa among billing. Nikunsumo ka pagbayad nimo mahal pa, then ni barato na pud siya so naay mga excess didto. So karon natigom naay certain percentage ingon si ERC kung manobra na gani mo ug ingon ani ka dako, refund, ug kung manobra mo ug ingon ani ka dako, collect,” Velasco said.
Velasco emphasized that the refund is just a one-time refund and after the August 11 to September 10 billing cycle, Davao Light will implement the regular billing.
“We reiterate that market prices are volatile thus monthly changes in the power rates are expected,” he said.
