Electricity bills up again in April due to higher prices, weak peso
Customers of Manila Electric Co. will see their monthly bill rise for the third time in a row, now with an additional 6.33 centavos a kilowatt-hour (kWh) amid higher prices at the spot market and a weaker peso.
Meralco said in a statement that this month’s hike would mean an increase in the bill of about P13 for a typical residential customer that consumes 200 kWh a month.
The utility firm said that for the April billing period, its overall charge went up to P10.5594 a kWh from P10.4961 in the March billing.
The generation charge alone went up by 3.49 centavos a kWh to P5.6322 from P5.5973 previously.
Meralco said there was an increase of P1.2815 a kWh in the cost of electricity at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) since there were tighter supply conditions in the Luzon grid.
“NGCP (National Grid Corporation of the Philippines) placed the grid under Yellow Alert on March 5, 7 and 8, 2019, due to insufficient operating reserves brought about by limited capability of several power plants,” the company said.
Also, charges from independent power producers (IPPs) were higher by 8.81 centavos a kWh. The depreciation of the peso against the US dollar pushed up IPP prices considering that 95 percent of IPP charges were dollar-denominated.
Meralco sourced 10 percent of its supply from the WESM and 41 percent from IPPs.
On the other hand, the cost of electricity sourced through power supply agreements (PSAs)—which accounted for 48 percent of Meralco’s supply—went down by 27.96 centavos a kWh.
Further, Meralco said there was a 3.37-centavo-a-kWh reduction in the feed-in tariff allowance for renewable energy-based power sources and a 1.74-centavo-a-kWh reduction in the universal charge for stranded debts incurred by the state-owned National Power Corp.
This offset an increase in transmission charges, taxes and other charges, pegged at 4.58 centavos a kWh.
Meralco’s distribution, supply and metering charges have remained unchanged for 45 months so far.
