MORE Power: Power rates slashed for 6 straight months

Razon-led MORE Electric and Power Corp., the power distribution utility in Iloilo City, on Tuesday said it reduced its electricity rates for six consecutive months.

In a statement, MORE Power said its residential rate for June was slashed by nearly P1 to P12.2990 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from P13.2511 per kWh in May.

“This is the sixth straight month that MORE Power is reducing its rates,” the company said.

The drop in charges was due to the decrease in generation cost, which resulted from the inclusion of geothermal power to the power supply mix made by the Energy Development Corp., it said.

The entry of renewable energy suppliers into the supply mix paved the way for the value added tax (VAT) on the generation charge to drop to P0.1613 per kWh, according to MORE Power.

Likewise, the company said that spot market price in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the drop in the price of coal as well as the transmission charge, which went down to P0.7226 per kWh from P0.9057 per kWh last year, also contributed significantly to the decrease in electricity charges last month.

MORE Power has set aside P5 million to refund bill deposits of their customers within the year.

A bill deposit refers to a payment made by a consumer at the time of application for their own electric service.

Under Article 7 of the Magna Carta for residential electric consumers, the bill deposit must be returned by Distribution Utilities (DU) after three years or 36 months provided that the consumer pays on time and has no record of disconnection.

Pursuant to the measure, a customer must apply for a bill deposit refund.

MORE Power President and CEO Roel Castro, however, said the company opted to voluntarily return the bill deposits in an effort to set an example to other distribution utilities.

“Even if the customer does not ask for it, we go out of our way to inform the customers that this is due to you and we will return it. Since we do not have any intention to use the money, we do not have the intention to keep the money; we do not have the intention of using it for our operation; why keep it when it is already due for return," explained Castro. — DVM, GMA Integrated News