By Sheldeen Joy Talavera, Reporter
TYPICAL households in areas served by Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) can have to tighten their belts this month, as the facility distributor has announced a rise in electricity rates.
The general rate will climb by P0.1048 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to P11.9617 per kWh in December from P11.8569 in November, Meralco said in an announcement on Tuesday.
Households consuming 200 kWh will see their monthly electricity bill go up by P21. Those consuming 300 kWh, 400 kWh, and 500 kWh can have to pay a further P31, P42, P52, respectively.
“This month’s increase was largely as a result of higher generation charge, which matches to our power suppliers,” said Joe R. Zaldarriaga, Meralco’s vice-president and head of corporate communications.
Generation charge rose by P0.1839 per kWh brought by the increased costs from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and power supply agreements (PSAs).
WESM charges climbed by P0.2531 per kWh as a result of the tighter supply conditions within the Luzon grid as average capability on outage increased by around 396 megawatts.
Charges from PSAs went up by P0.1050 per kWh as a result of weakening of the peso, which affected 51% of the prices, and lower average PSA dispatch.
The peso closed at P58.62 a dollar on Nov. 29, weakening by P0.52 from its P58.10 finish on Oct. 31.
Despite the impact of peso depreciation, which affected around 98% of the prices of independent power producers (IPPs), charges declined by P0.0410 per kWh as mitigated by higher IPP dispatch.
WESM, PSAs, and IPPs accounted for 31.4%, 40.2%, and 28.3%, respectively, of the corporate’s total energy requirement for the period.
On other components, transmission charge dropped by P0.0940 per kWh as a result of lower ancillary service charges from the reserve market, the avenue to obtain power reserves from the WESM.
Taxes and other charges, however, increased by P0.0149 per kWh.
“Pass-through charges for generation and transmission are paid to the facility suppliers and the grid operator, respectively, while taxes, universal charges, and Feed-in Tariff Allowance (FIT-All) are all remitted to the federal government,” the corporate said.
Meralco’s distribution charge has remained unchanged at P0.0360 per kWh since August 2022.
RECOVERY FOR RESERVE MARKET SUPPLIERS
At a briefing, Mr. Zaldarriaga said that the corporate will wait for the order from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to implement the gathering of the remaining amount to be recovered by reserve market suppliers.
“Once we get the order, we are going to include that in our power bills. Regardless of the rates might be, it’s going to be a pass-through charge, and the prices will go to the grid operator, which in turn might be paid to the generators,” he said.
In an announcement last week, the ERC announced that it had allowed the gathering of the remaining P3.05 billion to be recovered by power generators that supplied the facility reserve market in February and March.
The gathering of the said amount might be collected starting within the billing period of January next 12 months over a staggered period.
“Hopefully, kahit mayroong additional increase in transmission…bumaba naman ’yung generation charge, sana ma-mitigate ’yung impact (Hopefully, even with the extra increase in transmission, the generation charge will go down, and the impact might be mitigated),” Mr. Zaldarriaga said.
Meralco’s controlling stakeholder, Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., is partly owned by PLDT Inc. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Useful Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.
