Meralco hikes rates, citing weak peso, high spot prices

Customers of Manila Electric Co. will pay an additional 86.42 centavos per kilowatt-hour in the September billing period as spot prices continued to rise while the peso depreciated against the US dollar.

Meralco said in a statement that September marked the time when power rates “normalize” as the company had completed a P6.9-billion refund to customers that it implemented over a period of three months.

Meralco said this month’s rate hike would mean that a typical residential customer consuming 200 kwh would see an increase of P173 in his monthly bill.

It said that this month’s increase brought its electricity rate to P9.2491 per kwh from P8.3849 in August.

Generation charge rose by 56.15 centavos per kwh to P4.537 from P3.976 last month.

The adjustment in generation charge, according to Meralco, was due mainly to higher prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), where rates jumped by P1.7263 per kwh as demand in Luzon revved up.

At the same time, the cost of electricity delivered through long-term power supply agreements (PSAs) dipped by 2.63 centavos per kwh because of the peso’s weakening and due to lower dispatch of the power plants involved.

“Despite the weakening of the peso, the cost of power sourced from independent power producers decreased by [11.17 centavos] per kwh due to improved dispatch of First Gas-Sta. Rita, after undergoing scheduled maintenance in the preceding month,” Meralco said.

Currently, the shares of IPPs in Meralco’s supply mix stood at 46 percent. The remainder is shared by the spot market (12 percent) and PSAs (42 percent).

Also for September, the transmission charge for residential customers rose by 5.1 centavos per kwh while taxes and other charges went up by 35.37 centavos per kwh.