Power coop charging low rates amidst high demand

BY Eldie S. Aguirre
Digos City Bureau Chief

DIGOS CITY – Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Dasureco), a multi-awarded power distributor in the country has announced that it successfully lowered the rates to its member/consumers since September.

GodofredoGuya, Dasureco general manager in a press briefing on Saturday said their efforts to bring down power rates has been materialized in consonance with the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to ease the burden of energy consumers.

“We exerted all avenues to make this thing happen. Today, we are having the lowest power rates compared to other leading power distribution outlets in the country,” Guya said.

Engineer Gerry Morastel, Dasureco engineering department head said careful planning and forecasting pulled down the previous rates that reached P9.33/KWH. “Now we are charging P6.53/KWH to our member/consumers,” Morastel said.

In 2014, Dasureco was charging its member consumers from P7.41 up to P9.33; while in 2015 being the highest rates per kilowatt hour is P9.43; but in 2016 it brought down electricity rates to its lowest in 3 years pegged at P6.53 since September. The highest this year is P8.61 in June

Generation charges within its rate component was high in 2015 with 53% and 52% in 2016, while the lowest was 51% in 2014. Transmission charge was 11% in 2014, 8% in 2015 and 4% in 2016. Government charges is high with 19% in 2016, 16% in 2015, while the lowest was 11% in 2014.

The average rate in 2014 was P8.50; P8.63 in 2015 and P7.86 in 2016

Morastel said some of the factors that brought the decrease is the testing and commissioning phase of the San Miguel Consolidated Power Corporation  (SMCPC) in Malita, Davao Occidental that started on June 4. It is expected that regular rates will be imposed in December. The testing and commissioning of Filinvest Development Corporation (FDC) since July 12 and ended on October 14; And the lower cost of economic dispatch of power supply.

Dasureco has 75 MW of electricity from its existing suppliers, more than enough to provide sufficient energy peak demand of 53 MW for Davao del Sur and Davao Occidental.

Its current suppliers are the SMCPC (10MW); FDC (12MW); Therma South, Incorporated (TSI) (10MW); Therma Marine Incorporated (TMI) (12MW); Mapalad Power, Incorporated (MPI) (15MW); PSALM (9MW); and TUDAYA 2 (7MW).

As of 2016, Dasureco is using 37% of it power output from SMCPC, 22% from FDC, 28% from NPC-PSALM, 8% from Tudaya2, and 5% from TSI

In 2015, Dasureco was using 42% of its power output from NPC-PSALM, 25% from TMI, 11% from Tudaya2, 12% from MPI, and 10% from TSI.

As of this time Dasureco generation charge is at P2.9848, transmission charge of 0.2472 and DSM of 1.9734 which is much lower compared to Socoteco 1 (generation charge P4.6635) and Socoteco 2 (5.5118) and even Davao Light and Power Company (4.2192) and Meralco (3.9439).

In September Dasureco’s residential rate which includes fix charges and VAT is just P6.3726, while Socoteco 1 is at P8.4356, DLPC at P8.1434, Meralco at P7.5084 and Socoteco 2 at P8.7542.

Dasureco pulled down its rates from P8.6142 in June to P6.5377 in September.

The reduction of charges since June 2016 has reached 21% for residential, 22% for commercial, and 20% for industrial consumers.

A residential consumer with power consumption of 100 KWH could save up to P180.22, while commercial establishments consuming 1000 KWH has P1,729.10 savings, and the industrial sector with an average consumption of 100,800 KWH will have at least P157,517.89 savings due to current power rates.

It is expected that by 2024 the power supply demand would reach as high as 97MW from the current 53MW. This is aside from the possibilities that it would be higher considering the economic boom in the newly created province of Davao Occidental, and the development of the special economic zone in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.

Dasureco also forecasted that by 2021 the generation rate will be at P4.7463 from the current rate of P4.3266 plus the transmission charge and DSM.

Member/consumers has benefited from the 15MW power output of the modular generator sets constructed within the compound of Dasureco in Barangay (village) Cogon in Digos City.

“Without the modular generator sets we could have experienced 3 to 4 hours of rotating brownout during the energy crisis in the previous years,” Guya said.

Rodrigo Sacedor, Dasureco chairman of the board said they are planning to enter into an agreement with the builders of the generator sets to extend their services for another 10 years with conditions that they will turnover the units with no cost to the cooperative at the end of the contract.

“If the generator sets will be ours it could help in pulling down the cost of power from our cooperative since we don’t have to pay for its energy output,” Sacedor said