Baguio, Benguet power rates lower this month

BAGUIO CITY , Philippines — Residents of Baguio City and Benguet province will enjoy lower electricity bills this month, according to the Benguet Electric Cooperative.

BENECO said its January 2025 rate of P10.7718 per kilowatt-hour is lower by P0.2025 compared to the December rate of P10.9743 per kWh.

With the decrease, households that consume 100 kWh will pay P1,077.18 for the month.

Fraiser Angayen, BENECO’s non-network services department manager, said the lower rate was caused by the reduction in the power cost that the cooperative purchased from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market or WESM.

Power purchased from WESM represents 12.09 percent of BENECO’s total power requirement, with 87.37 percent coming from the Limay Power Inc.

The LPI is BENECO’s major power supplier while the WESM is the country’s spot market for power supply.

“The decrease in the price of coal in the global market had a bigger impact in our generation rate, despite the noted increase in the foreign exchange rate,” Angayen said.

The power cooperative purchased most of its power supply from LPI through its one-year emergency power supply agreement with the San Miguel affiliate.

Angayen said the cost of power purchased from the WESM and LPI compose the blended generation rate of BENECO that is passed on to consumers every month as generation costs.

“Had we bought all our power supply from the WESM, our generation rate could have been less than P4 per kWh since the spot market prices were low for the period,” BENECO general manager Melchor Licoben said.

Licoben said buying all power requirements from the WESM would not be possible in view of the agreement with LPI.

“Ideally, bilateral contracts are better to ensure a continuous and stable supply of electricity.  The prices this month at the WESM could be cheaper, but in the long run, these could increase,”  he said. “The WESM is a volatile market that cannot guarantee a stable power supply. Relying on the WESM as a source of power supply will be risky.”

Licoben said the WESM is there to stabilize supply whenever imbalances in the grid emerge.

“But we are not sure of the power cost,” Licoben said.