Expect lower electric bills this month

MANILA, Philippines—Customers of Manila Electric Co. can expect their electricity bills to go down in February after the new power supply agreements of the country’s biggest power distributor took effect starting January this year.

A highly placed source disclosed that based on initial estimates and previous simulations,  power bills might go down by about 19 centavos per kilowatt-hour. This will translate to reductions of roughly P19 for households consuming 100 kWh a month; P38 for those consuming 200 kWh; and about P57 for those consuming 300-kWh.

The source said the new power supply contracts, which would deliver more than 2,300 MW of electricity to Meralco, took effect starting the supply month of January, and would be reflected in the February electricity bills.

Meralco signed the contracts, which were already approved last year by the Energy Regulatory Commission, with some of the biggest power players in the country which include San Miguel Energy and South Premiere Power Corp. , both subsidiaries of San Miguel Corp.; SEM-Calaca Power Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Semirara Mining Corp., which owns and operates the 600-MW Calaca coal-fired thermal power plant; and Masinloc Power Partners Co., Ltd  of US power giant AES Corp., which owns and operates a 630-MW coal-fired power generating facility in Barangay Bani, Masinloc, Zambales.

The distribution utility earlier said it expected the average blended power rates from its existing and new power supply contracts to reach P5 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) this year and 2014; P5.04 per kWh in 2015; P5.07 per kWH in 2016; P5.08 per kWh in 2017; P5.10 per kWh in 2018; and P5.13 per kWh in 2019. These rates are still lower than the P5.65-per-kWh rate under the company’s transition supply contracts with state-run National Power Corp. (Napocor).