Meralco customers likely to see ‘minimal’ increase in January bill

By Alena Mae S. Flores – January 8, 2024, 7:10 pm
from manilastandard.net

Meralco lineman examined the electric hanging meters base at a post along Quezon Ave in Quezon City, As the Meralco has announced an increase in its power rates this month due to higher fuel costs and a weaker peso raised the generation charge as they said. PHOTO/MANNY PALMERO

Power retailer Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) forecasts a “minimal increase” in the generation charges for the January bills based on preliminary data, an executive said Monday.

“We are still completing the billing from our suppliers, but initial indications show that there may be a very minimal increase in the generation charge in the January bills,” Meralco vice president and spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said.

Zaldarriaga said this may be due to higher charges at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the trading floor of electricity last month.

He said the higher WESM rates were “likely driven by the increase in average capacity on outage in the Luzon grid, which is higher by around 418 megawatts in the last supply month.”

“This includes power plants that are on scheduled maintenance shutdown in preparation for the summer months,” Zaldarriaga said.

Meralco’s overall rates declined by P0.7961 per kilowatt-hour in December, bringing the overall rate for a typical household to P11.2584 per kWh from P12.0545 per kWh in November.

Meralco attributed the lower rates in December to the lower generation charge which went down by P0.6606 to P6.5332 from P7.1938 per kWh in November.

Meanwhile, Zaldarriaga asked consumers to manage their electricity consumption especially during the dry months.

“I would also like to remind our customers to be mindful of their consumption and continue practicing energy efficiency. On the supply side, Meralco is also working to ensure delivery of stable and reliable service to our customers,” he said.

Zaldarriaga said Meralco recently launched the competitive selection process for interim power supply agreements covering 260-megawatt peaking and 400-MW baseload requirements “which we target to be ready in time for the summer months when demand usually spikes.”