The Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce and Industry has asked the Negros Oriental 2 Electric Cooperative to explain the  sudden surge of its power rates.

NOCCI president Ed Du lamented what he called  the most expensive power rates per kilowatthour in the whole country, which is pegged at more than P10  per KWH.

Du  said that in last year’s power summit, the issue was the recurring brownouts, and so the chamber posed no objection to buying power directly from Green Core and did not mind paying a little more, so long as it could offer a reliable power supply.

NOCCI was made to believe that if there was an incremental increase it would not go beyond P1 per kilowatt hour, but  it has gone from P6.50 to more than P10. pkwh.

Du said Dumaguete and Negros Oriental will have a hard time  inviting investors with the  present rate and  call centers are already complaining.

Ciity mayor Manuel Sagarbarria said the city’s regular monthly consumption of power is P1.4 m to P1.5 m, but yesterday morning he signed a check for P1.8 million   for the monthly bill,  or an increase of P300,000.

Sagarbarria  said the city was not prepared for this because the budget set  for electric consumption is only P18 million for the whole year.

In earlier interviews,  the  finance officer  said  that Green Core’s application of rate adjustments was approved one or two months ago, and that the increased rates  supposed to be billed in the previous months was carried to the present billing, but normal billing will go back to what was approved by the energy regulatory commission.*JG

back to top