Electricity rates up this month

MANILA, Philippines -  Consumers will have to pay more for their electricity in February due largely to higher generation charge caused by higher fuel cost, increased capacity charges and reduced supply resulting from plant outages, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) announced yesterday.

Meralco said there would be an increase of P0.92 per kilowatt-hour in this month’s electricity rate to an overall rate of P9 per kwh.

Households with 200 kwh consumption should expect their bills to go up by P184 this month, while those consuming 300 kwh should brace for a P276 increase.

A 400-kwh consumption would translate to P368 hike; 500-kwh, P460.

The increase in generation charge was primarily driven by the normalization of capacity charges from the Pagbilao and Ilijan plants. Capacity charges from these plants pushed up the generation charge by P0.62 per kwh.

Meralco also said the lower dispatch from power supply agreements (PSAs) and independent power producers (IPPs) due to scheduled and forced outages also explained the higher rates.

“Calaca, Masinloc, Quezon Power and First Gas-Sta. Rita underwent scheduled shutdowns, while the Ilijan power plant was isolated by transmission line troubles due to Typhoon Nina,” it said.

Higher fuel prices also propped up the generation charge. This resulted from the quarterly re-pricing of Malampaya natural gas and a slight depreciation of the peso against the dollar.

Partially mitigating higher rates was the decline in the overall charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), by P0.25 per kwh.

Meralco sourced 38.6 percent of the electricity it distributed from PSAs, 28.1 percent from IPPs and 23.2 percent from WESM.

Apart from the generation charge, other bill components also registered an increase.

Transmission charge for residential customers went up by P0.15 per kwh. Taxes and other charges similarly went up by a combined amount of around P0.15 per kwh.