Meralco rates up this month

MANILA, Philippines — Customers of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will see higher bills for this month, mainly driven by higher generation charges.

At a virtual briefing yesterday, Meralco vice president and head of corporate communications Joe Zaldarriaga said the electricity rate went up by P0.3143 per kilowatt-hour to P9.7773 per kWh, from last month’s P9.4630 per kWh.

The hike corresponds to the increase in generation charge for December which is P0.1997 per kWh, raising last month’s P5.3346 per kWh to P5.5343 per kWh.

As a result, this is equivalent to an overall increase of around P63 in the total bill of a typical residential customer consuming 200 kWh.

For customers consuming 300 kWh, this is equivalent to a P94 increase; for 400 kWh, it is P126; and for 500 kWh, P157.

“This month’s charge already includes the first of the four monthly installments covering the deferred costs from the November bill,” Meralco said.

To cushion the impact of the previous month’s Malampaya facility maintenance, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) had directed Meralco to defer the collection of portions of its suppliers’ generation costs and to bill these on a staggered basis beginning this month until March 2022.

Meralco head of Regulatory Management Office Jose Ronald Valles said if not for the timely intervention of the ERC and the cooperation of power suppliers in deferring part of their charges, upward power adjustments would have been much higher, especially last month.

“We thank the ERC and our suppliers for easing the burden to consumers,” Valles said.

Meanwhile, charges from Power Supply Agreements increased by P0.2142 per kWh, brought about by higher international coal prices and lower dispatch of some PSAs.

In contrast, charges from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) decreased by P0.1541 per kWh, with the resumption of gas supply from Malampaya and improved dispatch of Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo plants.

“However, even with said resumption, the First Gas plants still used alternative fuel due to continuing supply restriction,” Meralco said.

Charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) were down by P0.0649 per kWh as a result of the improved Luzon power supply situation amid fewer plant outages coupled with the reduction in demand.

Last month, PSAs, IPPs and WESM accounted for 45.7 percent, 38.2 percent, and 16.1 percent, respectively, of Meralco’s energy requirement.

Meralco said transmission charges for residential customers also increased by P0.0460 per kWh due to higher Ancillary Service charges. Taxes, system loss and other charges also registered a net increase of P0.0686 per kWh.

It added that this month’s residential rate includes a -P0.0053 rate for the Power Act Reduction provision of Meralco’s current PSA with Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM), as provided for by Republic Act 9136 covering supply from the National Power Corp.

Meralco reiterated that the collection of the Universal Charge-Environmental Charge amounting to P0.0025 per kWh also remains suspended as directed by the ERC.

Moreover, Meralco said the continued implementation of the Distribution Rate True-Up refund which began in March 2021 continued to temper the overall increase.

It added that the refund rate for residential customers is at P0.2761 per kWh and appears in customer bills as a line item called “Dist True-Up.”

Earlier, the ERC provisionally approved Meralco’s proposal to refund around P13.9 billion over a period of 24 months or until the amount is fully refunded. This amount represented the difference between the Actual Weighted Average Tariff and the ERC-approved Interim Average Rate for distribution-related charges for the period July 2015 to November 2020.