Meralco bills down P0.41/kWh in November

The estimated 5.5 million customers of Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will see their November electricity bills go down by P0.41 per kilowatt hour (kWh) as the Malampaya gas facility started normal operations and less power plant outages occurred, the distribution utility announced Thursday.

 

This means households consuming 200 kWh will see a P82 decline in their bills.

 

In an e-mailed statement, Meralco said the lower power rate is attributed to a lower generation charge.

 

Generation charge decreased by P0.245 per kWh to P5.11 per kWh, the lowest level in the year to-date.

 

"This month’s decrease was primarily due to the improved availability of power plants and lower cost of fuel for the supply month of October," Meralco said.

 

The distribution utility noted the Malampaya gas facility fully supplied fuel to major power plants last month.

 

In the September supply month, Malampaya underwent a cumulative five-day restriction, which forced the First Gas power plants to use more expensive alternative fuel.

 

Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) charges registered a P25.61 per kWh reduction due to fewer incidences of forced outages of power plants.

 

Charges from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) were also lower by P0.54 per kWh and P0.03 per kWh, respectively.

 

Transmission charges also went down by P0.083 per kWh on lower ancillary service charges while taxes decreased by P0.056 per kWh.

 

There was also a cumulative decrease of P0.026 per kWh in subsidies and the system loss charge. – Meralco said. – Danessa O. Rivera/VS, GMA News