Meralco rate in Oct up

Customers of Manila Electric Co. will pay more this month as the overall charge goes up by 4.48 centavos per kilowatt-hour in the October billing period.

This ends five consecutive months of decreases that brought down charges by a total of about P1.52 per kWh.

In a statement, Meralco said this month’s price increase means a rise of about P9.09 in the bill for a typical residential customer that consumes 200 kWh in a month.

The power distribution giant said that for the October billing period, its overall charge went up to P9.0862 per kWh from P9.0414 per kWh in the September billing period.

Meralco said the slight increase was due to the smaller second installment of a refund from the so-called net settlement surplus or NSS, a mechanism used in the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM).

The company said that in September, a larger first-installment NSS refund was partly responsible for a reduction in Meralco’s overall charge.

Due to a calculation error by Philippine Electricity Market Corp., the Energy Regulatory Commission last August ordered a refund of about P1 billion to Meralco customers, to be implemented in tranches.

The refund in September totaled at P684 million. This month’s second and final installment is worth P381 million.

For this month, spot market charges went down by 52.9 centavos per kWh as the supply situation in the Luzon grid improved with some power plants went back online. Meralco sourced 17 percent of its supply from the WESM.

Also, the cost of supply from independent power producers—representing 40 percent of total—went down by 15.12 centavos per kWh thanks to a stronger peso.

On the other hand, the cost of electricity sourced through power supply agreements —representing 43 percent of Meralco’s supply—went up by 36.94 centavos per kWh.

Further, Meralco said there was a 2.49-centavo-per-kwh increase in the transmission charge for residential customers while taxes and other charges went down by 0.16 centavo per kwh.

So far, Meralco’s distribution, supply, and metering charges have remained unchanged for 51 months.