Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said Wednesday electricity rates in January have proven high as power generation costs rise.
The rate adjustment, which will be reflected in consumer power bills in February, will see electricity rates increase by P0.0846 per kiloWatt-hour. This means a typical household consuming 200 kWh a month will pay P17 more in February to P11.3430 per kWH.
Meralco traced the rate increase to the generation charge rising by P0.1136 to P6.6468 per kWh from P6.5332 per kWh in December as consequence of higher power cost from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market and from independent power producers.
WESM charges went up by P0.5611 per kWh due to higher average capacity on outage in the Luzon grid, which increased by around 418 MW. Charges from IPPs also increased by P0.1384 per kWh due to higher fuel costs incurred by First Gas – Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo resulting from the use of imported liquefied natural gas in the testing and commissioning of its LNG terminal.
WESM and IPPs accounted for 20.5 percent and 36.5 percent, respectively, of Meralco’s total energy requirement for the period.
Tempering the increase was a P0.1522 per kWh reduction in charges from power supply agreements (PSA) with the lower charges from Therma Luzon Inc. and South Premiere Power Corp. and higher excess energy deliveries from some PSAs that were priced at a discount. The share of PSAs in the December supply month stood at 43 percent.
Transmission and other charges registered a net reduction of P0.0290 per kWh.
The collection of the feed-in tariff allowance (FIT-All) at the rate of P0.0364 per kWh remains suspended as mandated by the Energy Regulatory Commission. Pass-through charges for generation and transmission are paid by Meralco to the power suppliers and the grid operator, respectively, while taxes, universal charges, and FIT-All are all remitted to the government.
Meralco’s distribution charge, on the other hand, has not moved since the P0.0360 per kWh reduction affecting the typical residential customer beginning August 2022.
