Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) announced there will be a continuing increase reflected in the electricity bills for the month of August as generation rates went up by P0.0378 due to higher charges issued by power supply agreements (PSAs) and Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
Overall, Meralco’s rates surged at P8.3849 per kWh from P8.2511 per kWh in July. This would translate into a net adjustment of P26.76 per typical residential household consuming 200 kWh while those with 300 kWh, 400 kWh, and 500 kWh should see an increase of P40.14, P53.52, and P66.90, respectively.
This month’s higher bill rates are a reflection of the last installment of the P6.9 billion recovery on pass-through charges from January 2014 to December 2016, Meralco said.
It said the overall generation charge increase is mainly due to the costs supplied from PSAs and IPPs, contributing largely at 45.6 percent and 44 percent, respectively.
This caused a P0.0378 rise in the generation rates to P3.9385 per kWh from last month’s P3.9763 per kWh.
Power charges from PSAs rose at P0.2222 per kWh while costs issued by IPPs increased by P0.0642 per kWh.
PSAs have recently derived its supply with a lower plant dispatch resulting from forced outages of Masinloc and Pagbilao plants.
Quarterly repricing of the Malampaya natural gas, as well as keeping up with the world crude oil pricing, reflected the IPPs’ new rates.
On a lighter note, Meralco said the surge in PSAs and IPPs was due to the lowered Wholesale Electricity Spot Market or WESM charge, which is now at P0.9768 per kWh and has a 10.4 percent share in the generation charge.
Meralco added there’s a lower power demand in the Luzon transmission grid that decreased the WESM rates.
The August billing will also reflect the recently approved recovery of the National Power Corp. (Napocor), dubbed the Universal Charge-Stranded Debts, and will be added as a separate item in the customers’ billing statements.
This will be priced at P0.0265 per kWh and will pay Napocor’s P24.2 billion debt recovery for 2011 and 2012, according to a provision authorized by the Energy Regulatory Commission in late June.
Transmission, taxes and miscellaneous charges also went up by P0.0383 per kWh and P0.0577 per kWh, respectively.