Meralco sees lower power rates in February

By Lorenz S. Marasigan – January 29, 2021
from Business Mirror

Power lines run beside a sign for the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) Makati branch in Manila, the Philippines, on Monday, March 23, 2009. Manila Electric Co. is the largest Philippine power retailer.

MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) forecasts power rates going down in February given the strong demand in the Luzon grid this month, which resulted in lower rates from power suppliers.

Meralco Spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said initial data suggests that the generation costs for February have a very strong likelihood of a decrease due to higher demand in the Luzon grid in January as compared to December.

“With Luzon peak demand in January increasing compared to December 2020, this swing in demand means that the fixed costs from power suppliers may be spread over higher energy volume, resulting in lower effective rates to consumers, compared to last month,” he explained.

This also means that charges from power supply agreements may go down.

“Do also note that the net overall power rate decrease since the start of 2020 is at more than one peso per kilowatt hour, with the further projected decrease in the overall power rate of February 2021 continuing this downward trend,” he said.

Zaldarriaga added: “Given all this, our Meralco rates are at the lowest levels in three years, and may possibly continue to go down in the coming months.”

Meralco earlier increased its power rates for January by 27 centavos per kilowatt hour (/kWh) to P8.75/kWh. Despite the increase, this month’s overall rate is still more than 70 centavos/kWh lower than January 2020’s rate of P9.45/kWh.