Meralco rates down by ₱0.41/kwh this month

By MYRNA M. VELASCO – January 8, 2020, 10:00 PM
from Manila Bulletin

Customers of Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will be enjoying a rate reduction of ₱0.41 per kilowatt hour (kwh) in their power bills this January, and that was primarily driven by the reconciliation of capacity fees of its power suppliers.

For residential consumers in the 200-kilowatt hour usage bracket, the aggregate reduction in their bills would be ₱82, according to the utility firm.

Overall, the power firm’s billed tariff for this month is at ₱9.4523 per kwh versus last December’s ₱9.8623 per kwh.

The generation charge component of its pass-on rate had been lower by ₱0.2928 per kwh to ₱4.9039 per kWh from the previous billing at ₱5.1967 per kwh.

“The decrease is mainly the result of a ₱0.8559 per kwh reduction in the cost of power from Meralco’s power supply agreements,” the utility firm has noted.

For this billing month, the reflected amount of reduction had been reckoned from the 49.4-percent share of PSA-underpinned capacities in the power firm’s supply portfolio.

For the other charges, such as the ancillary services fraction of the cost pass-on of system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), this also declined by ₱0.0517 per kwh in this billing period.

Additionally, taxes and other charges as integrated pass-through costs in the power bills had likewise been reduced by ₱0.0656 per kwh.

Referencing back on the generation charge component, Meralco Public Information Office Head Joe Zaldarriaga explained that “the lower PSA charges were brought about by a reduction in capacity fees as a result of the annual reconciliation of outage allowances done at the end of each year.”

For this billing cycle, the company’s procurement cost from contracted independent power producers (IPPs) had also been on downtrend of ₱0.0634 per kWh “due to improved dispatch and strengthening of the peso against the US dollar.” IPP purchases reflected in this billing month hovered at 41.2-percent.

Conversely, the utility firm’s capacity purchases from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in the last supply month had been higher by ₱1.7031 per kwh mainly due to tight supply conditions. Meralco though managed to cut its spot market supply sourcing at just 9.4-percent within the period.