Meralco cuts September power rates by 19 centavos

More than eight million consumers of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) can expect a small cut in their power bills this month after the power distributor reduced its rate by about 19 centavos per kilowatt hour (kWh) after two consecutive months of increases.

In a media briefing on Wednesday, Meralco officials said the overall rate for a typical household will go down to P13.0851 per kWh in September from P13.2703 in August.

According to Meralco vice president and head of corporate communications Joe Zaldarriaga, the downward adjustment will lead to a P37 reduction in the electricity bills of households consuming 200 kWh.

“We hope that along with relatively lower consumption during this period, this rate cut will bring relief to our customers,” he added.

The decrease in Meralco’s power rate this month was due to the dip in generation charge, which fell by P0.2603 per kWh.

This as costs of independent power producers (IPPs) and power supply agreements (PSAs) declined by P1.3459 and P0.3660 per kWh, respectively, as the peso gained more ground against the US dollar, coupled with the drop in global fuel prices.

Dollar-denominated

Meralco noted that the stronger peso affected around 99 percent and 57 percent of the costs of IPPs and PSAs, respectively, that were dollar-denominated.

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The lower supply costs were sufficient to cancel higher Wholesale Electricity Spot Market charges as well as the P0.26 per kWh addition from the contract price adjustments with South Premiere Power Corp. and Sual Power, Inc.

The Energy Regulatory Commission earlier allowed the two power generation firms to collect from Meralco P5.1 billion in cost recoveries. Meralco said the price adjustments would reflect in consumers’ power bills for six months, starting September.

PSAs, IPPs and WESM accounted for 65 percent, 29 percent and 6 percent, respectively, of Meralco’s total power requirement for the period.