Meralco rates up slightly in August
Residential customers of Manila Electric Co. will see higher overall rates in their bill for August, partly due to the increased cost of fuel that contract suppliers use.
Meralco yesterday said overall charges were going up by 2.65 centavos a kilowatt-hour, which means that a typical residential customer that consumes 200 kWh a month will pay an additional P5 for this month’s power consumption.
For the August billing, the utility giant’s overall charge is going up to P10.219 a kWh from P10.1925 in the June billing.
The generation charge alone went up to by 8.4 centavos to P5.3491 a kWh from P5.2651 in July.
“The increase is the result of a 65.54-centavo rise in the cost of power (sourced through) power supply agreements (PSAs) … and higher fuel prices,” the company said in a statement.
Meralco said PSA costs went up because, on average, power plants under contract saw lower dispatch—they operated or were dispatched at levels lower than what were economical.
The utility said it was sourcing 43 percent of its electricity supply from power plants engaged through PSAs.
On the other hand, the cost of electricity bought from the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) decreased by P1.1021 a kWh due to lower demand in the Luzon grid.
Also, Meralco said that despite higher prices of Malampaya natural gas—as a result of the quarterly repricing to reflect recent movements of crude oil prices in the world market—the cost of electricity from independent power producers (IPPs) decreased by 16.9 centavos a kWh due to higher power plant dispatch.
