Davao Light and Power Co., Inc. residential customers will see an increase in their recent electricity bills in view of their higher energy usage during the summer months.
The electric utility has observed that the average consumption of residential customers has increased significantly by 17%. Some customers’ bills have even doubled when comparing a pre-summer month like February versus April.
In these summer months, customers tend to use more electricity due to the intense heat that we have been experiencing. The temperature has been recorded by PAGASA to climb as high as 41 degrees centigrade.
The use of cooling home appliances such as air-conditioning, refrigerators, and electric fans are usually extended for longer periods. The ambient temperature also makes these appliances work harder in order to keep up with the cooling demand. Setting these appliances at low temperature also requires more electricity.
Unlike before where most people work in the office or in the field, now they are staying at home in observance of the quarantine. Hence, there are more users of electricity in the house on a 24-hour basis.
Contributing to the increase is the generation charge due to the shift from wet to dry rates of the distribution firm’s biggest supplier, the National Power Corporation (NPC-PSALM). This shift carries an increase of P0.33 per kilowatt-hour or from P2.59 to P2.92.
During dry rate periods, an increase in the use of more expensive energy sources takes place as major hydropower plants, which are cheaper, have low generation. This runs from January to June but is reflected in the customers’ bill’s generation charge from February to July.
Moreover, the generation charge in the customer’s bill is just a pass-through charge or Davao Light merely acts as a collecting agent for this charge. Davao Light’s own rate, which is the distribution charge, has not increased since 2012.
Davao Light advises its customers to use electricity wisely through energy conservation and energy efficiency methods. Please visit www.davaolight.com for tips on how to reduce consumption.
