Meralco rates down in Dec

Residential customers of Manila Electric Co. will pay 37.85 centavos less per kilowatt-hour in the December billing period, thanks to a stronger peso and lower spot market prices.

In a statement, Meralco said this month’s rate decrease would mean that a typical residential customer consuming 200 kwh would see a reduction of about P76 compared to the previous monthly bill.

Meralco’s rate went down to P9.2487 per kwh this month from P9.6272 per kwh in November.

Generation charge decreased by 30.35 centavos per kwh to P4.60 this month from P4.90 last month.

The decrease in generation charge was mainly due to the appreciation of the peso against foreign currencies as well as a 46.58-centavo decrease in the charges at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).

Meralco said adjustments in the peso-dollar exchange rate affected about 97 percent of prices of electricity sourced from independent power producers (IPP) as well as 60 percent of rates from electricity sourced through power supply agreements (PSAs).

It said that with the peso gaining strength against the dollar, IPP rates went down by 21.91 centavos per kwh while PSA rates went down by 32.44 centavos per kwh.

Currently, Meralco gets 44 percent of its supply through PSAs, 44 percent from IPPs, and 12 percent from the spot market.

As for the WESM, charges went down with the improvement in the power supply situation compared to October, when the grid experienced three instances of yellow alerts — which means that the reserve of available generation capacity went below the minimum level.

Further, Meralco said a decrease of 1.86 centavos per kwh in transmission charges also contributed to the reduction in its overall rate for customers.

“Consequently, taxes and other charges also went down by (5.64 centavos) per kwh this month,” Meralco said.