Double digit price hike for Electricity (Nov 16, 2015)

[lopburi3]

The basic charge has been adjusted to the current market cost of the normal fuels used for production.

So in future ft should only be a factor if costs of production change from what they are today.

[lostboy]

Best to use the tariff schedule published by the utilities for residential consumers, those figures multiplied by units of electricity used and Ft and VAT gives your number. The announcement is used by the utilities for technical purposes such as calculating subsidies

[lostboy]

There should be a number which is average base tariff that will be the reset number gr the old one of 3.9 baht/kWh covering network costs. Generation costs are captured in the Ft reset every 4 months as usual. I'm in transit so haven't had time to translate the full document.

[lostboy]

The ERC under the new Chairman appointed by the military are keeping a low profile.

[jmccarty]

My household power bill dropped by 80% from a year ago by October, now, latest bill a few days ago was up by about 50% from previous bill. No idea how they price a unit?

Edited November 21, 2015 by jmccarty

[KhunBENQ]

My household power bill dropped by 80% from a year ago by October, now, latest bill a few days ago was up by about 50% from previous bill. No idea how they price a unit?

Absolutely no way to explain this by price fluctuation.

Without comparing the units it does not say anything.

Sounds suspicious. Maybe you are not alone

Everything about price per unit can be found in this thread.

Rule of thumb: about 4.5 Baht/unit but really depends on consumption.

Edited November 21, 2015 by KhunBENQ

[Pib]

So what's the bottom line here, Pib, et al?

The MEA/PEA per kWh rates are going up as previously described in the thread (at least once the discounted fuel tarif ends), or something else is the result.

Make it simple!

TallGuy,

The best my pea-sized brain can figure out it's as what I said on post #55 which I quote below. Appears they are just rebasinglining the basic & Ft rates by combining the old basic rate from June 12 "with" the current Ft rate) to get the new 16 Nov basic rates. Kinda like it you had a basic rate of say 4 and a Ft of 1 (which totals 5 when the dust settles) they have now just rolled the current Ft to the basic rate...you now end up with a basic rate of 5 and a Ft of 0 which still totals 5. With the Ft now rolled into the basic rate it would be reset to 0 and start going up or down from there. When the dust settles your electric bill should pretty much remain same-same until the price of fuel goes up which would start driving the Ft above 0 again.

I say "pretty" much versus exactly because I didn't pull out a calculator for each range of KWH usage...different ranges have different basic rates and for most people thier bills includes a couple of ranges to get your final bill....but for folks like me who uses a lot of A/C most of my bill is confined to the over 400KWH range.

If a person just looks at the old June 12 Residential 1.2 rates for the over 400KWH usage range the rate per KWH is 3.9361 plus the current Ft of 0.4961 which totals 4.4322 baht/KHW (not including VAT and small service fee). And assuming the new 16 Nov rates are basically the old rates "plus" current Ft rolled-in (which reset the Ft to 0 since it was rolled into the new basic rates) the 16 Nov rate schedule for over 400KWH range shows 4.4217 baht/KWH which is a little lower than what we were paying assuming the reset Ft remains pretty close to 0....and that Ft shouldn't go up much if any until the price of fuel starts going up again.

I guess our future bills like the bill we get in Dec will tell the final story. Since the new rates began 16 Nov I expect any bill between now and 16 Nov will be a combination of old and new rates...or maybe just the new rates only. But any bill closing out on 16 Dec or later would totally reflect the new rates only which as said will result in a bill pretty much same-same as if under the old rates.

Summary: final "total" rate per KWH a person pays appears to be staying pretty much same-same under old and new rates...that's the best my pea-sized brain can figure out at this time.

Maybe they are rebaselining the basic rates & Ft by rolling-in the current Ft to the basic rates. That is, the new 16 Nov basic rates were basically the old Jun12 rates plus current Ft. When you roll-in the current Ft with the old basic rates you get real, real close to the new 16 Nov basic rates. Then the new Ft would have a new start at 0.0 baht....and the new Ft may even be adjusted monthly instead of every 4 months as current.

When the dust settles a person's electric bill would still be approximately the same since the great bulk of an electric bill is the basic rate plus Ft....the other two minor components being the monthly service charge of around Bt38 and the 7% VAT.

But one thing for sure, the MEA webpage still shows the Jun 12 basic rates on their English language page (probably haven't updated it yet) but on their Thai language page they have the new, higher 16 Nov basic rates.

[Pib]

My household power bill dropped by 80% from a year ago by October, now, latest bill a few days ago was up by about 50% from previous bill. No idea how they price a unit?

Sounds like you are only looking at the total price and not how many KWHs you used. Your bill will show KWH used per month and then it gives you a bill/total cost of that KWH usage.

If you have your old electric bills, take a look at how many KWHs you used 12 months ago compared to now...you just may find out you used 80% less KWH than you did last year this time. Maybe it cooled off earlier this year in whatever part of Thailand you live it which means less A/C usage...and a A/C is by far the biggest KWH hog in a household.

Yeap, you need to look at your KWH usage to determine if you used more electricity or not. Pricing won't tell you anything about how many KWHs you used.

[Pib]

Yea I think a person's electric bill will actually be slightly lower if using the same KWH/month under the new rate schedule with the Ft reset close to zero since it has apparently been rolled into the old rates to make the new basic rates and reset the Ft to basically zero.

For example, my 13 Nov bill was for a total of Bt8,438.08 for 1835KWH used. That includes all fees/VAT...and uses the old Ft of 46.38 stang/KWH (on a person's electric bill the Ft may be reflected differently as 0.4638 baht/KWH) since my bill closed out before 16 Nov when the new rates/Ft went into effect.

Now when going to the MEA Electric Bill Calculator using the Residential 1.2 tariff which applies to my residence (your bill will show what rate schedule applies to your residence if you get billed directly by the electric company), entering the same 1835KWH, and using the new Ft for at least 16 Nov - Dec which is -3.23 stang/KWH (note the minus sign in front of the -3.23) which is automatically inserted by the calculator since apparently the calculator is using the new rates as of 16 Nov forward, that 1835KWH bills out to Bt8,417.48. If above mentioned new Ft is not automatically inserted, just manually enter -3.23

Actually gives me a lower bill than the old rates. I can live with that.

MEA Electric Bill Calculator Weblink Below. Since MEA and PEA rates are same-same a PEA customer could also use the MEA calculator.

http://www.mea.or.th/aboutelectric/index.php?l=en&tid=4&mid=280&pid=116&ctForm=form12

Edited November 21, 2015 by Pib

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Summary: final "total" rate per KWH a person pays appears to be staying pretty much same-same under old and new rates...that's the best my pea-sized brain can figure out at this time.

Thanks Pib... So, I take that to mean that the notion envisioned in the OP -- regarding a "double digit price hike" in electric rates -- is not the case, at least in terms of the actual bills that customers will be receiving.

That's good news. I'll be sleeping contentedly tonight with the Air Con blasting on HIGH!!!