POWER rates in March increased by P0.0894 per kilowatt hour (kWh) mainly due to higher spot market prices and cost of power purchased from independent power producers (IPPs).
The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said on Thursday that overall electricity rates slightly increased to P10.4961 per kWh this month, from last month’s P10.4067 per kWh. The upward adjustment will result in an increase of around P18 in the total bill of a typical household consuming 200 kWh.
Generation charge, which makes up bulk of the bill, went down to P5.5973 per kWh, a decrease of P0.2966 per kWh.
The generation charge decrease is primarily due to lower charges from plants under power supply agreements (PSAs).
The P1.0768 per kWh decrease in PSA charges this month was attributed to the strengthening of the peso against the US dollar, lower fuel prices and higher average plant dispatch. Masinloc Unit 1 and San Gabriel returned to normal operations in February, following the scheduled maintenance outage in January. The share of PSAs to Meralco’s total requirement this month was at 48 percent.
However, charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) went up by P0.5178 per kWh due to tighter supply conditions in Luzon, with higher demand for power and more frequent plant outages this month.
Cost of power from IPPs was also slightly higher by P0.0549 per kWh due to lower average plant dispatch. Quezon Power was on scheduled maintenance outage from January 18 to February 8. WESM and IPPs provided 12 percent and 40 percent of Meralco’s supply needs, respectively.
Meanwhile, the transmission charge of residential customers went up by P0.0288 per kWh this month due to higher National Grid Corporation of the Philippines ancillary service charges.
Taxes and other charges also increased by P0.3572, mainly due to the completion of the Universal Charge-Stranded Contract Costs (UC-SCC) refund last month.
Meralco’s distribution, supply and metering charges, meanwhile, have remained unchanged for 44 months, after these registered reductions in July 2015.
Meralco reiterated that it does not earn from the pass-through charges, such as the generation and transmission charges.
Payment for the generation charge goes to the power suppliers, while payment for the transmission charge goes to the NGCP. Taxes and other public policy charges, like the Universal Charge and FIT-All rate are remitted to the government.