The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has announced a Php. 0.34 per kilowatt-hour increase in its electricity bills for the month of November.
This means that a household consuming 200 kwh will have an increase of around Php. 68.72 in their monthly bill.
The Php 0.3436 per kwh was brought about by the increase in generation charges by Php 0.1925 per kwh from Php 4.7155 per kWh to Php. 4.9080 per kwh.
The increase in generation charge was attributed higher Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) charges as the unscheduled outages that occurred in October affected the prices in the market.
WESM charges increased by Php. 0.4810 per kWh.
Meanwhile, power costs from independent power producers (IPPs) and power supply agreements (PSAs) also rose due to the weakening peso against US Dollar.
Transmission charges also reflected an increase of Php 0.860 per kwh because of higher NGCP ancillary charges.
When asked about their preparation for the ASEAN summit next week, Meralco said that they are on alert for the said event.
“Nakahanda po kami to respond to any eventuality,” Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said. “We have to ensure that there is supply and there is electricity during the ASEAN [summit] and makakaasa po sila na ang meralco po ay handing tumugon sa anumang sitwasyon.”
(Meralco is ready to respond to any eventuality. We have to ensure that there is supply and there is electricity during the ASEAN [summit] and they can count on Meralco to respond to any situation)
