PECO hits study stating it charges highest power rate
The Panay Electric Company has brushed aside the study of retired professor Pablo Española stating that Iloilo City has the highest electricity rate, among power firms in 63 countries.
PECO in a statement said the study compared outdated international rates from 1994 to 2002 to current electricity rates in Iloilo City.
On Española’s claim that “there was little chance that rates in other countries would be much higher today than they were in those years,” PECO said “apparently Española was unaware that power generation requires fuel, and that fuel prices have increased dramatically in the past several years.”
Instead, PECO, which charges P12.95 per kWh, said some current figures show that San Francisco, California charges between $.12 and $40 per kWh, with a 100 kWh per day use average of approximately $.313 per kWh or P13.95 per kWh.
It added that Hawaii’s rate in June 2010 was $.2836 per kWh equivalent to more than P 13.04 per kWh when converted to Philippine currency.
“If one were to go back in time, Panay Electric Co. of Iloilo’s average electricity rate for the years 2000 to 2002 was P5.59 per kWh,” PECO said.
It said that some information is also incorrect in the comparison between Iloilo City rates and those of other cities wherein Meralco’s rate was indicated at P10 per kWh when their rate was P12 per kWh in August 2010.
Moreover, PECO said that “of the P12.95 per kWh that a residential customer in Iloilo City pays, only P 1.28 goes to PECO, the rest goes to PPC and the government.”
It added that it has one of the lowest distribution rates in the country at P1.28 per kilowatt hour compared to Meralco’s P3.02 and Davao Light and Power’s P1.93. Also, Iloilo Electric Cooperative I charges P1.79; ILECO II, P1.92; and ILECO III, P2.12.
PECO also noted that the Freedom from Debt Coalition, which opposes its power purchase agreement with Panay Energy Development Corp., cited areas like Cebu City and even the United States as having cheaper electricity, when much of their power is coal generated.
The power firm said it signed a 65-megawatt power supply contract with PEDC in response to the call of its consumers for lower prices and higher reliability as purchasing power from PEDC would reduce rates by almost P2 per kWh.
“It is understandable that citizens are irate because it is true that Iloilo City’s overall power rates are high. In addition, there have been daily brownouts occasioned by the lack of available power in the region especially as the new power plant of (PEDC) is not fully operational yet,” PECO said.
PECO said it is working hard to ensure that the situation changes for the better within the next few months.
“Unfortunately, reporting misleading information is not constructive, and will do little more than divert attention from the real problems at hand, and encourage people to pilfer electricity,” it added.*NLG
