Dumaguetenos and Negrenses who are forced to use more electric devices due to the hot climate brought about by the El Niño phenomenon are in for a double whammy as the National Electrification Administration recently announced an increase in the cost of electricity.
In a memo dated May 16 to all member-consumer-owners of electric cooperatives nationwide, NEA Antonio Almeda explained that the rise in electricity prices is simply because of the pass-through cost from the power suppliers, and does not benefit the electric cooperatives.
Consumers from Noreco I, whose coverage area is from Manjuyod to Canlaon City, are seeing an increase of P1.4 per kilowatt hour. From last month’s rate of P14.93 per kilowatt hour, consumers expect to pay P16.398 per kilowatt hour for the month of May.
Meawhile, Noreco II residential consumers expect to pay P14 per kilowatt hour, up by .87 centavos per kilowatt hour from last month.
Lawyer Fe Marie Dicen-Tagle, Noreco II general manager, told the MetroPost that generation costs are increasing during these summer months so power rates fluctuate monthly, depending on market conditions affecting generation charges.
Small wonder why electric consumers are complaining about having to pay high electric bills.
An Economics professor at Silliman University, who has requested not to be named, studied his Noreco bills, and found that his bill rose by about 40 percent. “I believe that’s mostly the effect of the seasonal rise in temperature,” he said.
Analyzing his bill further: “The 87 centavos is about eight percent of the P13/kwh I was charged this May. That’s a month-to-month increase. If it continues, that’s an alarming 96 percent (not kidding) inflation rate for electricity by May 2025,” he said. “In other words, even if my consumption were to stay constant, my bill would almost double by May next year.”
“How do I cope? I invoke Raul Manglapus’ possibly apocryphal comment on being raped: “[I] sit back and enjoy it, knowing that I’m helpless,” the Economics expert added.
Judy Flores-Partlow, Negros Oriental bureau chief of the Philippine News Agency, went on social media to post her bill of P7,929 for the month of April. She said that due to the rising heat index, her air conditioners and electric fans have to work doubly hard.
“I’ve been considering going solar for a long time,” she says, “but the thing is, the start-up cost is expensive!” But she said she believes she has to go in that direction someday. “Hopefully, this year!” she said.
My experience with 8.5 kilowatt grid-tied solar panels, which became operational in October last year, is starting to pay off. In April, I got an electric bill of ‘Negative P8,773’, saving me a lot of power to use for the coming hot days.
The bill for April was much lower than the ‘Negative P5,420.70’ for the month of March, and the ‘Negative P3,070.23’ for the February bill.
One of Dumaguete’s enthusiastic solar power endorsers, Erwin Macias, said he decided to go solar was after realizing that buying a generator would not bring him a return-on-investment.
“At first, I was hesitant because there was really no local information to be had; only sales pitches from suppliers which you barely understood,” Macias said. “I started asking around from solar suppliers what I could get for my prepared budget for a generator that I was planning to buy.”
“I found that whatever difference there was in cost between my prepared budget and the cost of solar [panels] would eventually even out, if I add in the cost of fuel and lubricants for the generator. Plus the fact that solar has an ROI, considering you get a return every day you use it, while the generator sits idly around while you pray that you never get to use it,” Macias said.
Describing his experience with solar as “great”, Macias said he gets to enjoy his appliances more knowing he doesn’t have to pay electricity. He said he also has not experienced a single minute of brownout at their home, as he has batteries for back up for his hybrid (grid-tied) system.
Macias said when Typhoon Odette hit Negros Oriental in December 2021, and toppled most of the electric poles in his area in the town of Valencia, his house continued to have electricity for a whole month until power was restored.
“I was providing free electricity to my neighbors for them to charge their phones and emergency lights,” he recalled. “I am now in my sixth year [with solar power], and almost getting my ROI,” Macias said.
Some financing institutions are considering tapping the potential of solar energy to also increase their loan portfolio. The Perpetual Help Credit Cooperative Inc. is offering a Solar Power Loan. PHCCI General Manager Clifford Lariosa told MetroPost they are finalizing the memoranda of agreement with solar power suppliers which will be implemented by July.
One of the bigger suppliers of solar packages in Dumaguete, the Visayan Solar Service Inc., is not waiting for the loan offers of financing companies. Its CEO Jeff Davis said they are offering potential residential customers monthly installments for 16 months, and 20 months for commercial users without any downpayment. Davis said Visayan Solar Service is the “only company to finance at zero interest”.
He noted that a big commercial bank offers a home solar loan of P500,000 payable in 60 months (five years). “You would have paid a total of P950,000 [with interest] by the time you’re done.”
For those who believe there has to be a better setup than their connection to the local electric cooperative, Macias reminds them: “Big universities have gone into solar, the big malls here have solar, local businessmen’s homes have solar. They can’t be all wrong?,” he said. “Lastly, go to the 5th level of the Uymatiao parking facility, and scan the rooftops, and you would see that Dumaguete is slowly tapping into a renewable source of energy, and since we live in a tropical country with free productive sunlight from 8am to 5pm (depending on where you are), it just makes sense.”
Currently, there now are over 300 member-consumers of NORECO II who have chosen to install grid-tied solar panels.
Still, the Economics professor does not seem fully-convinced. “Economics tells me to go solar. But I believe the profit margins of solar installers are in the neighborhood of a hundred percent, maybe more, so that’s another rape that I will sadly not get to enjoy,” he said. (Alex Pal)
