(Screenshot from Zoom)
MANILA – The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) on Wednesday announced that power rate in its franchise areas will increase this month.
Meralco hiked overall rate by PHP0.1543 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in September, increasing this month’s per kWh rate to PHP11.7882 from PHP11.6339 in August.
This is the third consecutive month that the distribution utility (DU) increased its power rate.
Meralco said the adjustment is equivalent to an increase of around PHP31 in the electricity bill of a household consuming 200 kWh a month.
Meralco vice president and head of corporate communications Joe Zaldarriaga, in a press briefing, said higher transmission charge has offset the reduction in generation charge.
“Following the resumption of operation of the reserve market on August, so what happened was that the ancillary service charge from the reserve market was doubled compared to the charges under the ancillary service procurement supply agreements of the NGCP,” Zaldarriaga said in Filipino.
“More than 50 percent of the increase in the transmission rate this month came from ancillary service charges,” he added.
Generation collection in September declined by PHP0.1547 per kWh, as charges from Power Supply Agreements (PSAs), Independent Power Producers (IPPs), and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) declined.
“As we initially predicted, the strengthening of our currency, the Philippine peso, is the reason for the reduction in the generation charge which actually affects 50 percent of the cost of our power supply agreements and 97 percent of the IPP costs which are dollar denominated,” Zaldarriaga said.
He said WESM charge also decreased by 5 centavos per kWh.
PSAs, WESM, and IPPs accounted for 46.2, 27.3, and 26.4 percent of the DU’s total energy requirement for the period.
On the other hand, taxes and other charges will have a net increase of PHP0.0177 per kWh. (PNA)
