Meralco Power Rates Up by 13 Centavos/kWh

Manila Electric Company (Meralco) announced Friday that October electricity bills of consumers increased by 13 centavos per kilowatthour (kWh) due to increase in generation charge, transmission charge,including taxes and other charges.

The distribution utility (DU) said it hiked its billing rates by Php0.13 centavos per kWh or Php26 for a typical household consuming 200 kWh a month.

Meralco noted that the total bill rate for the month at Php8.55 per kWh is lower than the rate in November last year.

The generation charge, which had an increase of Php0.09 per kWh from last month, was affected by the outages of some power plants. It prompted Meralco to purchase capacity from the electricity-market Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), which increased by Php1.19 per kWh.

The prices from independent power producers (IPPs) also saw an increase of Php0.10 per kWh due to the lower capacity dispatch of the power plants. Meralco noted that the increase in rates was partly offset by low natural gas prices.

Power plants, which were contracted through power supply agreements (PSAs), also saw a decrease of Php0.02 per kWh due to the higher power dispatch from Sual.

Meralco bared in its October 2015 generation costs from its website that Therma Mobile Inc. (TMO) had a lower dispatch of capacity at 13.3 percent, while South Premiere Power Corp. (SPPC) had supplied capacity at a rate of 73.7 percent.

For last month, Meralco sourced its capacity from PSAs at 49.5 percent, IPPs at 45.6 percent and WESM at 4.8 percent.

For the transmission charge, the line item charge had a hike of Php 0.02 per kWh due to higher ancillary service charges.

Aside from the two charges, taxes and other charges also reflected the increases, which had a total increase of Php 0.02 per kWh.

The distribution utility also stressed its distribution charge remains the same after the reduction last July.

”Meralco reiterated that it does not earn from the pass-through charges, such as the generation and transmission charges. Payment for the generation charge goes to the power suppliers, while payment for the transmission charge goes to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP),” it added.

Last month, the total reduction for the year, from six months of decreases, amounted to Php 2.26 per kWh. (PNA) FPV/JLD