The City Council is planning to invite the Aboitiz-led Davao Light and Power Company (Davao Light), the lone power distribution utility provider in Davao City, to explain the “sudden” rise of their electric rates.
Councilor Louie John Bonguyan, chair of the energy and water committee, said during the council session Tuesday that he received several complaints and saw Facebook posts of Dabawenyos complaining about their high electric bills.
Davao Light told MindaNews earlier that it implemented a P0.14 per kilowatt hour (kwH) increase in April and P1.63 in May, which brought the power rates to P9.13 per kWh and P10.76 per kWh, respectively, driven by high demand for power, especially during El Niño season.
Several areas in Mindanao experienced heat indices breaching 40 degrees Celsius in the past few months due to droughts, which started in July 2023 and ended June 10 this year, according to the PAGASA weather bureau.
“They’re claiming the effect of El Niño but January was rainy season? Maybe March, April, May, we experienced no rain. But now that the rainy season has started, up to when will we endure the high electricity rates? I hope they can justify it,” he told reporters in the vernacular.
In a statement on Tuesday, Davao Light Tuesday said it would decrease its power rates from P10.76 per kWh in May to P7.94 per kWh in June.
The reduction of power rates is mandated by Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) order Case No. 2024-017 MC that requires distribution utilities to spread out the generation charges from May’s Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) bill over four months (June to September 2024).
“[T]he ERC aims, through this measure, to mitigate the impact of the high generation rates particularly for consumers of [distribution utilities] with high WESM exposure amidst the recent heat waves in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, and a series of Red and Yellow Alerts in the Luzon and Visayas Grids,” ERC said in a statement Thursday.
However, the generation rates are expected to rise over the next three months due to this staggered or spread-out payment, according to Fermin Edillon, head of the Reputation Enhancement Department at Davao Light.
But if the power rates might be affected by this staggered payment, Edillon said it depends on the power demand during the months of July, August and September, which are the usual rainy seasons.
“The staggered payments for the next three months will be used to pay our use of electric power from WESM,” he added.
“But for now we cannot predict if there will be an increase or decrease of our power rates as a whole, and by how much. But what’s clear is that our generation rate will increase due to our staggered payment to WESM,” Edillon said. (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)
