The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) could give back between 4 to 5 centavos per kilowatt hour (kWh) to consumers at its next billing cycle in March.
Jose Ronald Valles, Meralco first vice president and regulatory management head, shared this development in a message to reporters over the weekend.
This developed in the wake of an order by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) reminding distribution utilities to validate the cost of generation charged against consumers prior to passing them on.
Earlier, the ERC urged Meralco to complete the validation justifying the rate adjustment it will be imposing this month.
Meralco previously announced a P0.5738 per kWh increase in power rates equivalent to a hike by P115 in the monthly bill of residential customers consuming 200 kWh.
Meralco said the rate hike is driven by the generation charge that went up from P0.4552 to P7.1020 per kWh due to the higher cost of power from independent power producers and from power supply agreements.
The ERC noted that while Meralco admits that a validation of the impact of the use of liquefied natural gas and its new gas supply contracts is necessary given the terms of its power purchase agreements (PPAs), the power distributor has yet to provide the results of such validation.
Monalisa Dimalanta, ERC chairperson, said any cost passed on to consumers must be in accordance with Meralco PPAs as approved by the ERC.
“In recent decisions issued by the ERC involving pass-through generation charges, the ERC reminds all distribution utilities that their duty does not end when electric power is supplied and the charges have been collected,” Dimalanta said.
