Electricity rates between October and March next year are set to fall to reflect lower power generation costs and declining energy prices, state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) said on Tuesday.
The price of natural gas, which accounted for 63 percent of Taipower’s power generation costs, has dropped from NT$19 per cubic meter at the end of last year to between NT$11 and NT$12 per cubic meter, Taipower chairman Hwang Jung-chiou (黃重球) said, hinting at a possible cut in electricity rates.
“However, we would not cut electricity rates by as much as April’s 7.34 percent,” Hwang told reporters on the sidelines of a media event, citing limited room for a further drop in natural gas prices.
Under Taipower’s pricing formula, electricity prices are adjusted every six months in April and October to reflect changes in power generation costs.
The utility in April lowered electricity rates by an average of 7.34 percent, or NT$0.22 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). The size of rate cuts next time will depend on international natural gas prices this month and next, Hwang said.
Taipower is to submit a new pricing plan to a review committee in early September to finalize the rates, he said.
The review committee will take Taipower’s annual profitability target of NT$17.2 billion (US$550.01 million) into account when deciding on new rates, he added.
Taipower reported unaudited pretax earnings of NT$6.5 billion in the first half of the year, compared with a pretax loss of NT$4.8 billion in the same period last year, company data showed.
Local media reported that new rates would fall by between 2 and 4.5 percent from April’s average rate of NT$2.88 per kWh, which means that each household using 330kWh per month could save between NT$15 and NT$30 per month between October and March next year.
Taipower last month implemented an electricity price hike to encourage energy conservation. The higher prices are set to end at the end of September.
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