NEW DSM RATE IN EFFECT STARTING JANUARY 2012 –A LOWER RATE FOR AKELCO RESIDENTIAL CONSUMERS
Rence N. Oczon
Public Information Officer
AKELCO, in compliance with the Rules for Setting Electric Cooperatives’ Wheeling Rates (RSEC-WR),will implement a new rate for Distribution, Supply, and Metering (DSM) charges beginning January 2012 at the rate of PhP1.6109/kwh which is lower by PhP.3308/kwh compared to last year’s DSM.
In addition, the coop is required to align its customer classes with the new customer classification. Formerly, AKELCO’s customer classes are: Residential; Commercial; Industrial; Public Building; and Street Lights. To align the coop’s customer classes based on RSEC-WR, we will now have only three (3) customer segments: the Residential Customers; Low-Voltage Customers; and High-Voltage Customers. Residential consumers classified by the coop as such will remain as residential consumers while commercial, industrial, public building or street lights consumers will now be classified either low voltage customers (those connected to low voltage not exceeding 1 kV) or higher voltage customers (those connected to voltage exceeding 1 kV).
The DSM rate per customer classes will be as follows: Residential consumers – PhP1.6109/kwh; Low Voltage consumers & Higher Voltage consumers – PhP0.7595/kwh, an increase of PhP0.1426 from last year’s P0.6169. We can safely conclude that this new regulatory framework for customer classes is an attempt to bridge the gap between residential and commercial classes where the latter previously enjoyed much lower rate than the former. The lowering of DSM rates for residential consumers which comprises almost 90% of the coop’s customers means that AKELCO will be getting lesser revenue to service the more than a hundred thousand customers and hopefully not sacrificing the quality of service the latter deserve.
However, your electricity bill might increase or decrease depending on generation, transmission and other charges itemized on your monthly billing statement, which AKELCO has no control of. But one thing is constant for this year; the DSM rate will be PhP1.6109/kwh for residential consumers and PhP0.7595/kwh for low voltage and higher voltage consumers.