Meralco to charge more in December

Residential customers of Manila Electric Co. will for the second month in a row pay more for their monthly bill with an increase of 9.02 centavos a kilowatt-hour (kWh), mainly due to higher power prices for contracted supply as well as from independent producers.

Meralco said in a statement this month’s hike meant that a typical residential customer that consumes 200 kWh a month will see an additional P18 in their bill.

The distribution giant said that for the December billing period, its overall charge went up to P10.1803 per kWh from P10.0901 per kWh in the November billing.

The generation charge alone rose by 5.78 centavos per kWh to P5.3303 per kWh from P5.2725 per kWh previously.

Meralco said there was an increase of 51.67 centavos per kWh in the cost of electricity sourced through power supply agreements (PSAs), which represented 42 percent of the company’s supply.

Also, the price of power sourced from independent power producers (IPPs) went up by 17.83 centavos. Meralco sourced 38 percent of its supply from IPPs.

“Despite a stronger peso, PSA and IPP charges increased this month due to lower average plant dispatch,” Meralco said.

“San Lorenzo Modules 50 and 60 were on scheduled maintenance outage from Oct. 28 to Nov. 7 and Oct. 28 and Nov. 8, respectively,” the company added.

On the other hand, prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market went down by P1.0268 per kWh due to an improvement in the power supply situation in the Luzon grid as well as lower demand.

Spot supply accounted for one-fifth of Meralco’s purchases.

Further, Meralco said transmission charges to residential consumers increased by 1.69 centavos per kWh while taxes and other charges went up by 1.55 centavos per kWh.

The utility’s distribution, supply, and metering charges have remained unchanged for 41 months so far.