Customers of Manila Electric Co., the country’s largest power distributor, will see another reduction in their electricity bills in September after a reduction of P0.2908 per kilowatt-hour in power rates in August.
Meralco, as the company is more popularly known, said the typical household that uses 200 kWh of electricity a month will enjoy a P58 reduction in the power bill as rates go down to P10.8991 compared to July’s P11.1899/kWh. Adjustments in power rates during a particular month is usually reflected in customers’ bill for the succeeding month.
The reduction in August followed the decline in power rates in July. With the latest adjustment, the combined reduction over the past two months now stands at P1.0121 per kWh.
Meralco attributed to lower generation charge the decline in August rates as it went down by P0.2137 to P6.3929 per kWh from P6.6066 per kWh in July.
It said charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market dropped by P1.2873 per kWh as average demand in the Luzon grid fell by more than 200 megawatts due to the rainy season. The decrease in spot market prices also reduced the imposition of the secondary price cap to 2.41 percent of the time in the July supply month from 9.21 percent in the previous month. Meralco sourced around 17 percent of its total energy requirement from WESM during the period.
Charges from power supply agreements also went down by P0.1688 per kWh due to lower fuel prices and the peso’s appreciation which affected around 26 percent of PSA charges that are dollar denominated.
Charges from independent power producers increased slightly by P0.0853 per kWh increase in charges due to lower average IPP dispatch as several units of First Gas-Sta Rita and First Gas-San Lorenzo underwent scheduled outage during the July supply month. Mitigating the impact of reduced dispatch was the decrease in the price of Malampaya natural gas following its quarterly repricing, and the peso appreciation that affected around 97 percent of dollar-denominated IPP charges.
PSAs accounted for 47 percent of Meralco’s total energy requirement for this period, while IPPs covered the remaining 36 percent.
Transmission and other charges, which include taxes and subsidies, also registered a net reduction of P0.0771.
