Meralco cuts January power bills

Customers of Manila Electric Co. get a New Year’s gift as the overall rate decreased by 34.18 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kWh), after two straight months of increases, amid lower prices for contracted electricity as well as at the spot market.

Meralco said in a statement this month’s hike represented, for a typical residential customer that consumes 200 kWh in a month, a reduction of P68 in their bill.

The company said that for the January billing period, its overall charge went down to P9.8385 per kWh from P10.1803 per kWh in the December billing.

The generation charge alone dipped by 41.84 centavos per kWh to P4.9119 per kWh from P5.3303 per kWh previously.

The distribution giant said there was a decrease of P1.2293 per kWh in the cost of electricity sourced through power supply agreements (PSAs), which represented 40 percent of the company’s supply.

“Lower PSA charges were brought about by a reduction in capacity fees as a result of the annual reconciliation of outage allowances done at the end of each year under the PSAs approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission,” Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said.

“The early completion of annual capacity payment for Sual Unit 1, Ilijan, Pagbilao Unit 1 and PEDC (Panay Energy Development Corp.) resulted in savings immediately passed on to consumers by way of lower electricity rates,” Zaldarriaga said.

Also, the price of power sourced from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) went down by 1.65 centavos per kwh.

Meralco sourced 18 percent of its supply from the WESM.

On the other hand, the price of power from independent power producers (IPPs)—nine-tenths of which is US-dollar denominated—went up by 8.47 centavos per kWh due to the weakening of the peso against the greenback.

Supplies from IPPs accounted for 42 percent of Meralco’s purchases.

Further, Meralco said transmission charges to residential consumers increased by 12.1 centavos per kWh while taxes and other charges went up down 4.44 centavos per kWh.

The utility’s distribution, supply, and metering charges have remained unchanged for 42 months so far.