By Matthew Go
The Benguet Electric Cooperative (Beneco) announced on Wednesday that more than 220,000 of its consumers will pay lower electricity bills this January, with rates dipping due to a partial power supply sourced from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
According to Laarni Ilagan from Beneco’s Community Relations Office, the power distributor’s January rate stands at PHP10.7718 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), a decrease of PHP0.2025 compared to the previous month’s rate of PHP10.9743/kWh. “A household consuming 100 kWh will pay around PHP1,077.18 for the month,” Ilagan said.
Fraiser Angayen, Beneco’s non-network services department manager, attributed the lower cost to reduced purchasing expenses from WESM. Of Beneco’s total power requirements, 12.09% were procured from WESM, while the bulk of 87.37% is supplied by Limay Power Inc. (LPI). Angayen noted that the cooperative has a one-year Emergency Power Supply Agreement (EPSA) with LPI, which sets most of the power supply cost.
Beneco General Manager Melchor Licoben explained that WESM’s generation cost for January proved especially low but cautioned that relying solely on spot market purchases can be risky due to price volatility and potential supply instability. “WESM is there to stabilize supply if there are imbalances, but we are not sure of power costs if we rely on it entirely,” Licoben said.
The cooperative’s generation rate, a blend of supply from WESM and power from LPI, is passed on to consumers monthly, resulting in the lowered rates this month. The possibility of even cheaper power exists if all supplies were secured from the spot market, Licoben noted, but the risk of fluctuating prices remains a concern for Beneco’s long-term rate stability.