ELECTRICITY rates this December rose to P9.8623 per kilowatt hour, up by P0.3044 per kWh from last month’s P9.5579 per kWh, mainly due to higher spot market prices.
The upward adjustment is equivalent to around P61 in the typical household’s total electricity bill, or those with a monthly consumption of 200 kWh. Despite the adjustment, electricity rate this month is still around P0.70 per kWh lower than in April 2019.
Generation charge, a major component of an electricity bill, went up to P5.1967 per kWh, an increase of P0.1650 per kWh, from P5.0317 per kWh last month.
This was because charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) increased by P1.0799 per kWh, driven by tighter supply conditions in the Luzon grid. As a result, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Luzon Grid on Yellow Alert on two occasions.
The average capacity on outage in November increased by 525 megawatts (MW) because of scheduled and forced outages of some power plants and the natural gas supply restriction of Malampaya onshore gas plant implemented by SPEx (Shell Philippines Exploration BV) from November 10 to 14 this year. The share of WESM to Meralco’s supply needs was reduced to 10 percent.
Meanwhile, the cost of power from the independent power producers (IPPs) and power-supply agreements (PSAs) also increased by P0.1106 per kWh and P0.0987 per kWh, respectively, due to lower average dispatch and weakening of the peso against the US dollar.
San Lorenzo (527 MW) was on scheduled outage from November 1 to 9, while Masinloc Unit 2 (344 MW) was on planned maintenance outage for the whole supply month. Around 96 percent of IPP costs are dollar-denominated, while around 61 percent of PSA costs are dollar-denominated. IPPs’ and PSAs’ share in Meralco supply needs was at 38 percent and 52 percent, respectively.
Also, transmission charge for residential customers increased by P0.0753 per kWh as a result of higher ancillary service charges. Meanwhile, taxes and other charges registered an increase of P0.0641 per kWh.
Meralco’s distribution, supply and metering charges, meanwhile, have remained unchanged.
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 Charges and the FiT-All are remitted to the government.
Image credits: Alysa Salen