Meralco customers face higher June bills

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Customers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will see their electricity bills increase in June due to higher power generation charges.

The country’s biggest power distributor reported that electricity consumers would see their bills for this month rise by P0.22 a kilowatt-hour (kWh) “as the generation charge along with other components of the electricity bill registered upward adjustments.”

This means a typical household using 200 kWh of electricity a month will experience an increase of about P44 this June.

Meralco said in a statement that the generation charge rose by P0.19 a kWh to P5.66 a kWh. “Still, this is P0.48 lower than the generation charge in June 2012,” it said.

The transmission charge also increased by P0.02 centavos a kWh due to higher ancillary service charges. Taxes increased by P0.015 centavos a kWh.

Other bill components, which include the system loss charge, power act reduction, previous month’s adjustment on generation cost, subsidy and universal charges, had a cumulative reduction of P0.005 centavos a kWh.

Meralco reiterated that it does not earn from the generation charge and other pass-through charges. “Payment for the generation charge goes to the power suppliers such as the IPPs, plants selling to Meralco under the PSAs, Napocor and WESM. The rest of the pass-through costs include transmission, taxes and universal charges.

Meralco’s distribution, supply and metering charges account for only 18 percent on the average of the total electricity bill.

The cost of electricity bought from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) increased by P0.27 a kWh.