Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Electricity bills to go down — ERC

ELECTRICITY bills may go down next year.

Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Rodolfo Albano Jr. yesterday said customers of the National Power Corp. may expect a cut of 16 centavos per kilowatthour starting early next year.

“Power rates are expected to go down by 12 centavos to 16 centavos per kWh. This is because of first, the appreciation of the peso against the dollar, and second, the efficient operation of some of the generating assets of Napocor –which were utilized to its full capacity. We expect this to be filed within the first quarter of next year,” Albano said.

He said the ERC is evaluating the Napocor rate applications under the generation rate adjustment mechanism or GRAM and incremental currency exchange rate adjustment or ICERA.

Albano said the ERC is also set to approve a possible average reduction of eight to 10 centavos per kWh for Napocor’s 8th ICERA and 9th GRAM applications for June 2006 to Dec. 2006.

The cut will be reflected in the Feb. 2008 bills of power consumers.

Napocor has a pending application for a reduction of 12 to 16 centavos per kWh for the 9th and 10th ICERA and GRAM. Albano said the Napocor applied for a rate reduction for its GRAM because the firm utilizes less oil-fired power plants. Journal Online

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