Oil prices, power rates to go down

MANILA, Philippines - Consumers may get a P2 per liter rollback for gasoline and diesel this weekend, oil industry sources said yesterday.

“Yes, there will be a rollback. It will probably be around P2,” one source said.

Oil companies cut gasoline and diesel prices by P0.90 per liter and kerosene by P1.05 on Nov. 24.

Electricity rates may also go down this month, an official of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said.

Larry Fernandez, Meralco senior assistant vice president and head of utility economics, said consumers may see a reduction in the generation charge this month due to lower cost of power at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the country’s trading floor for electricity.

Meralco will announce the final rates next week.

The generation charge is the cost of power sourced by Meralco during the previous month.

At present, the power distributor sources its power largely from power generators and independent power producer administrators and a small portion – around five percent – from the WESM.

Consumers saw a reduction in their November bills of around P82 for a typical household consuming 200 kilowatt-hours after power rates went down by 41 centavos per kwh.

The generation charge decreased from 24 centavos per kwh in November to P5.11 per kwh.

In October, the generation charge hit P5.35 per kwh from P5.19 per kwh in September.

The Malampaya gas facility likewise did not experience any supply restriction during the October supply month.

It supplies natural gas to three power plants in Luzon, accounting for 40 percent of the grid’s total power requirements. These are the 1,200-megawatt Ilijan natural gas power plant operated by Kepco Philippines, First Gen Corp.’s 1,000 MW Sta. Rita and 500 MW San Lorenzo natural gas plants. The three power plants are in Batangas.