Power rates going down this month

MANILA, Philippines – Electricity rates will go down this month due to lower transmission charges, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor, said yesterday.

Meralco announced a reduction of P0.0451 per kilowatt hour in overall rates this month to P8.46 per kWh, which is lower by P0.09 per kWh compared to September last year’s P8.55 per kWh.

The lower rate translates to a reduction of around P9 in the electricity bill of a household with a monthly consumption of 200 kwh; P13.53 for those consuming 300 kWh; P18 for 400 kWh and P22.55 for 500 kWh, according to Meralco.

“The reduction is due to the downward movement in transmission charges, which more than offset a higher generation charge,” the company said.

Generation charge went up by P0.0879 per kWh to P3.94 per kWh due mainly to higher cost of power from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) because of reduced operating hours of power plants arising from scheduled maintenance and instances of forced outages.

The Quezon Power Philippines Ltd. Plant went on forced outage from Aug. 5 to 8. The First Gas Power Corp.’s Sta. Rita Modules 10 and 20 had limited operations due to scheduled maintenance last month.

Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) charges, on the other hand, decreased by P0.32 per kWh despite instances of yellow alert status and red alert status in the August supply month.