Meralco rates up in February billing

Customers of Manila Electric Co. will pay an additional 56.82 centavos a kilowatt-hour (kWh) this month as power generation charges normalize after going down in January.

Meralco said in a statement that this month’s hike would mean, for residential customers consuming 200 kWh a month, an increase of P114 in their bill.

The distribution giant said that for the February billing period, its overall charge went up to P10.4067 a kWh from P9.8385 in the January billing.

The generation charge alone rose by 98.2 centavos a kWh to P5.8939 from P4.9119 previously.

The company said there was an increase of P1.9217 a kWh in the cost of electricity sourced through power supply agreements (PSAs), which represented 37 percent of the company’s supply.

This was mainly due to the return to normal levels of capacity fees, particularly of Sual Unit 1, Ilijan, Pagbilao Unit 1 and Panay Energy Development Corp.

“After the reduction in PSA charges in January due to the early completion of annual capacity fee payments for the previous year, capacity fees this month returned to levels prescribed in the PSAs approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission,” Meralco said.

Also, the price of electricity sourced from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) went up by P1.4141 a kWh. Meralco sourced 18 percent of its supply the WESM.

This was due to tighter supply conditions in Luzon as several large power plants went on scheduled maintenance outage.

On the other hand, prices from independent power producers (IPPs) went down by 0.42 centavo a kWh due to the strengthening of the peso against the dollar.

Supplies from IPPs—about 96 percent of whose charges are dollar-denominated—accounted for 45 percent of Meralco’s purchases.

Meralco said transmission charges to residential consumers, along with taxes and other charges, decreased by 41.38 centavos a kWh.

The utility’s distribution, supply and metering charges have remained unchanged for 43 months so far.