Meralco bills up P0.84 kWh in February

After enjoying three months of lower rates, customers of Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will see their electricity bills up by P0.84 kilowatt hour (kWh) this month on higher charges and the added cost of renewable energy (RE) used under the Feed-In Tariff (FIT) scheme.

 

A household consuming 200 kWh per month will see a P168 increase in their bills, while a household using 300 kWh per month will have to pay P252 more, Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga told GMA News Online.

 

In a separate statement, the power utility company noted the higher generation charge, transmission charge, taxes, and other charges caused the electricity rates to go up.

 

Also, a new line item called FIT-All (Renewable) was added to the bill beginning this month, Meralco said. Only the distribution charge did not increase.

 

Overall rates are now P10.51 per kWh, still lower compared with P11.04 in February 2014 but higher than the P10.27 average rate in 2014. 

 

The generation charge went up by P0.52 per kWh, mainly due to a P1.00 increase in the rates of generation companies under the Power Supply Agreement (PSA) as capacity fees normalized from a low level in the preceding month.

   

Generation costs went up because of the lower dispatch of most companies on the back of lower demand in the January, which covered the Christmas holidays, the five-day holiday in Metro Manila and the cooler weather.

 

There were also scheduled outages of Masinloc and Quezon Power, and the forced de-rating of Ilijan.

 

While the scheduled outages had an upward pressure on Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) prices, WESM charges had a net reduction of P1.15 per kWh because of lower billing from prior months.

 

The transmission charge went up by P 0.12 per kWh, brought about by an increase in both the wheeling and ancillary charge components of National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.

 

Taxes also went up by P0.08 per kWh, while other charges (system loss charge and lifeline subsidy) increased by P0.08 per kWh.

 

The bill this month will reflect the new FIT-All (Renewable) charge of P0.04 per kWh, a uniform charge that will be billed to all on-grid electricity consumers nationwide in support of the FIT Program under Section 7 of the Renewable Energy Act of 2008.

 

This charge will form part of the fund which the National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) will use to pay the FIT-eligible Renewable Energy (RE) developers for the power they will produce. – VS, GMA News