The cost of electricity within the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) franchise area is seen higher in January as a result of higher charges imposed by the Wholesale Electricity Sport Market (WESM).
This was bared Monday by Meralco, citing possibly higher generation charge during the month.
Meralco is actually still completing the billing documents of its suppliers but initial indications show there may be minimal increase in the generation charge in the January bills.
“This may be due to higher WESM charges, likely driven by the increase in average capacity on outage in the Luzon grid, which is higher by around 418 megawatts (MW) in the last supply month,” said Joe Zaldarriaga, Meralco vice president and head of corporate communications.
Zaldarriaga said the power plants that went offline during the month include those on scheduled maintenance shutdowns preparatory for when demand for electricity typically surges in the hot months from April to June.
Thus, Meralco appealed for customers to be mindful of their consumption and continue practicing energy conservation measures even as he gave assurance that enough power is being procured to deliver stable and reliable services.
“We recently launched the competitive selection process for interim power supply agreements covering 260 MW peaking and 400 MW baseload requirements, which we target to be ready in time for the summer months when demand usually spikes,” Zaldarriaga said.
The previous December, Meralco implemented a P0.7961 per kilowatt hour (kWh) reduction in rates due to lower generation charges made possible by lower charges from both the WESM and independent power producers.
The adjustment redound to a reduction of around P159 in the monthly bill of residential customers consuming 200 kWh and brought the overall power rate to only P11.2584 per kWh from P12.0545 per kWh.
