Meralco power rates up again in August

Consumers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will again see an increase in their electricity billings for this month, the power distributor said on Monday.

At a briefing, the company said it would impose a slight upward adjustment of P0.0327 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in its power rates for August, pushing the overall rate to P11.6339 per kWh from July’s P11.6012 per kWh.

For residential customers consuming 200 kWh, this would mean an additional P7 in their electricity bills.

This marks the second consecutive monthly increase in Meralco rates after it imposed a hefty P2 upward adjustment in July, citing “the normalization of power costs.”

This time, the power distributor attributed the hike to the higher transmission charge for August, with the increase reaching P0.1086 per kWh, after the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines billed more for ancillary services.

While the generation charge was reduced by P0.0503 per kWh, it was not enough to offset the higher transmission charge.

Charges from independent power producers (IPP), on the other hand, also went down by P0.2974 per kWh because of higher dispatch and the strengthening of the peso, affecting the majority of IPP costs that were dollar-denominated.

Third installment

While prices at the spot market were slashed following weaker demand in Luzon, Meralco said that Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) charges for August still went up by P0.5940 per kWh due to the collection of the third of four installments of deferred costs ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

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The WESM is an open market where electricity is traded between power producers and distributors to get additional supply, with rates expected to be higher during the summer months.

Charges from power supply agreements (PSAs) also inched up by P0.0421 per kWh due to higher fuel costs.

The IPPs, WESM and PSAs accounted for 33 percent, 27 percent and 40 percent, respectively, of Meralco’s total energy requirement for this month.

Joe Zaldarriaga, vice president and head of corporate cimmunications of Meralco, said that consumers could expect their power bills to go down by October as the collection of deferred WESM costs would be over by September. INQ