Meralco October billing down P0.073 per kwh

MANILA, Philippines — Electricity rates in areas serviced by the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) went down this month on lower generation charge and feed-in-tariff allowance (FIT-All).

Meralco said overall rate for a typical household went down by P0.0737 to P9.8628 per kilowatt-hour from P9.9365 per kwh last month.

The decrease is equivalent to reduction of around P15 in this month’s power bills for residential customers consuming 200 kwh, P22 for those consuming 300 kwh, P29 for 400 kwh and P37 for 500 kwh.

“Two factors actually are the reason behind the reduction. First is the reduction in the feed in tariff allowance of six centavos per kilowatt-hour. This is because of the Energy Regulatory Commission’s resolution, dated Aug. 30 this year, wherein it approved the collection of P0.0364 FIT-All per kwh starting October 2022 billing period,” Meralco vice president and head of corporate communications Joe Zaldarriaga said at a briefing yesterday.

“So insofar as the generation charge components are concerned, we have a slight reduction of two centavos per kilowatt-hour in the last supply month, which impacted in October bills,” he said.

Meralco said generation charge dropped by P0.0201 to P6.9192 per kwh from P6.9393 per kwh in September, on the back of lower costs from its supply contracts.

Charges from independent power producers (IPPs) and power supply agreements (PSAs) decreased by P0.5073 and P0.0702 per kwh, respectively.

According to Meralco, the reduced use of more expensive alternative fuel by the First Gas-Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo plants and increased plant utilization of IPPs and PSAs were able to more than offset the impact of the steep depreciation of the peso in September.

The lower IPP and PSA charges likewise more than offset higher charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), which rose by P4.8128 to P11.9990 per kwh due to tight supply conditions in the Luzon grid.

Meralco said spot market prices remained persistently high throughout the September supply month.

IPPs and PSAs covered 47 percent and 49 percent, respectively, of Meralco’s energy requirement for the period, while only four percent came from the WESM.

Meanwhile, transmission, taxes and other charges for residential customers registered a slight upward net adjustment of P0.0083 per kwh.

Pass-through charges for generation and transmission are paid to the power suppliers and the system operator, respectively, while taxes, universal charges and FIT-All are all remitted to the government.

Meralco said distribution utilities such as itself only earn from distribution, supply and metering charges.

For the company, its charges went down by P0.0360 per kwh for a typical residential customer beginning last August.

Prior to the adjustment, Meralco charges were unchanged since the reduction in July 2015.

Meralco said the ongoing distribution-related refunds, equivalent to a total of P1.8009 per kwh for residential customers, also continue to temper rates charged to customers monthly.