Meralco rates down this month

MANILA, Philippines — Customers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will see lower electricity bills this September as rates go down for the fifth consecutive month.

Meralco said overall electricity rates decreased by P0.526 per kilowatt-hour from P9.5674 per kwh last month to P9.0414 per kwh this month.

The downward adjustment will mean a decrease of around P105 for the typical 200-kw household’s total bill.

This was the fifth straight month of electricity rate decrease, or a total downward adjustment of almost P1.52 per kwh since April, Meralco said.

For this month, the power distributor attributed the decline to lower spot market prices, which pulled down overall generation rate.

Generation charge went down from P4.9620 per kwh last month to P4.5191 per kwh primarily due to lower charges from the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM).

WESM charges decreased by P3.6503 per kwh as supply conditions improved in the Luzon grid.

“The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) did not declare any Yellow or Red Alerts during the whole supply month as compared to nine yellow alerts in July,” Meralco said.

“Contributing to the lower WESM rate is the refund of Net Settlement Surplus (NSS) as directed by the ERC in its Order dated Aug. 1, 2019,” it said.

During the supply month, Meralco sourced 17 percent of its total requirements from WESM.

Meanwhile, the cost of power from the power supply agreements (PSAs) decreased by P0.1522 per kwh due to lower fuel prices.

On the other hand, cost of power from independent power producers (IPPs) increased by P0.4844 per kwh because of lower average plant dispatch and weakening of the peso against the US dollar. Around 95 percent of IPPs costs are dollar-denominated, the power utility firm said.

PSAs and IPPs provide 44 percent and 39 percent of Meralco’s supply needs, respectively.

In terms of other bill components, transmission charge for residential customers slightly increased by P0.0056 per kwh – an increase offset by P0.0886 decrease in taxes and other charges.

Meanwhile, Meralco’s distribution, supply and metering charges have remained unchanged for 50 months, from reductions recorded in July 2015.