MANILA, Philippines — Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) customers will see a slight uptick in their electricity bills this month.
The power distributor attributed the increase to the Net Settlement Surplus (NSS) refund ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
Meralco said its overall electricity rates increased by P0.0448 per kilowatt-hour from P9.0414 per kwh last month to P9.0862 per kwh this month.
A typical household consuming 200 kwh will expect an increase of around P9 in its total bill.
The power distributor, however, said that even with the slight increase, there has been a total downward adjustment of electricity rates amounting to almost P1.47 per kwh since April.
Meralco said generation charge inched up by P0.0215 per kwh to P4.5406 per kwh due to the smaller NSS refund from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
WESM charges decreased by P0.5290 per kwh due to an improved power supply situation in the Luzon grid as there were fewer power plant outages during the supply month.
But the WESM charges this month also included the second installment of the NSS refund, as directed by the ERC last August.
This month, the NSS refund is smaller at around P381 million, compared to the previous month’s NSS refund of approximately P684 million.
The share of WESM in Meralco’s supply needs remains at 17 percent.
Meanwhile, the cost of power from the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) decreased by P0.1512 per kwh due to the strengthening of the peso against the dollar. Around 97 percent of IPPs’ costs are dollar-denominated.
These partly offset power supply agreements (PSA) charges, which increased by P0.3694 per kwh mainly due to lower average plant dispatch. IPPs and PSAs provided 40 percent and 43 percent, respectively, of Meralco’s supply needs.
For other bill components, transmission charge for residential customers slightly increased by P0.0249 per kwh as a result of higher ancillary service charges.
On the other hand, taxes and other charges registered a decrease of P0.0016 per kwh.