Meralco slashes rates this month

MANILA, Philippines - Customers of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will have lower electricity bills for the fifth straight month this September as higher capacity delivered by major power plants dragged down generation charge.

Meralco announced overall rates for its residential customers this month would go down by P0.57 per kilowatt-hour to P8.55 per kwh.

This brings the total reduction to P2.13 per kwh over the past five months. This month’s reduction also marks the seventh time this year that rates have gone down.

The distribution company said this month’s overall rate, which is P1.81 lower than the P10.36 per kwh recorded in September 2014, is the lowest since January 2010.

With the reduction, a household consuming 200 kwh will have a P113.46-reduction in their electricity bills, while those consuming 300 kwh, 400 kwh and 500 kwh a month will see bills go down by P170.19, P226.92 and P283.65, respectively.

Meralco attributed the decline in power rates to the P0.42 per kwh drop in generation charge to P4.13 per kwh.

It noted that several large generating units, namely, South Premiere Power’s Ilijan natural gas power plant, Sem-Calaca Power’s coal power plant, Quezon Power’s coal plant, and Therma Luzon’s Pagbilao coal plant improved their dispatch levels in August after experiencing outages during the previous supply month.

“In particular, Ilijan increased dispatch level from only 48 percent in the July supply month to 81 percent in August,” Meralco noted.

This was because Ilijan 1 was on a scheduled maintenance for 27 days in July while Ilijan 2 was de-rated during the Malampaya gas restriction last July 13-16.

The distribution firm also pointed to the lower fuel costs from Malampaya natural gas field, which brought down prices from First Gen plants, namely Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo gas plants.

While charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) rose, the increase was only P0.006 per kwh.

Meanwhile, the shares of power supply agreements, independent power producers (IPPs), and WESM in Meralco’s total power requirements were stable at 47, 46, and seven percent, from the previous month’s 43 percent, 46, and 11 percent, respectively.

Also causing the drop in power rates are the P0.04 per kwh decline in transmission charge due to lower Power Delivery Service and ancillary service charges, among others.

Meralco, the country’s largest power distributor, has 5.68 million customers in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite and Rizal, as well as in certain areas in the provinces of Batangas, Laguna, Pampanga and Quezon.