Power rates cut by P1.43 per kwh this month

MANILA, Philippines - Customers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will see lower electricity bills for the second straight month, as the power distributor yesterday announced a P1.43 per kilowatt-hour reduction in overall rate in June.

From P9.60 per kwh, consumers will be charged P8.17 per kwh, the second lowest since December 2009, as lower generation charge and the first wave of the P6.9-billion over-recovery refund from January 2014 to December 2016 are factored in.

This month’s rate decrease amounts to a P285 decrease in the total bill of a typical household consuming 200 kwh; P429 for 300 kwh; P572 for 400 kwh; and P715 for 500 kwh.

Last month, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) cleared the company to give a refund over a three-month period starting this month. For residential customers, the refund translates to a reduction of P0.79 per kwh, excluding taxes.

Overall generation charge, meanwhile, decreased by P1.0253 per kwh, from P4.8839 per kwh to P3.8586 per kwh, according to Meralco.

The cost of power sourced from independent power producers (IPPs) went down by P0.59 per kwh and from the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) by P1.25 per kwh. Power supply agreement (PSA) prices slipped P0.04 per kwh.

“There was a reduction in IPP and PSA costs because of higher plant dispatch, continuous peso appreciation and the completion of the staggered recovery of liquid fuel cost that was incurred during the Malampaya maintenance shutdown from Jan. 28 to Feb. 16, 2017,” Meralco said.

“Additionally, the decrease in cost of power supplied through the WESM is due to fewer plant outages despite higher power demand in Luzon.”

The share of IPPs and PSA purchases to Meralco’s total requirements are 40.7 percent and 45.6 percent, respectively.

The share of WESM stood at 13.7 percent.

Reductions were also registered in other bill components: transmission charge decreased by P0.11 per kwh while taxes and other charges also went down by a combined amount of P0.35 per kwh.