Meralco rates up anew in October

Customers of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) should expect higher electricity bills anew in October as the power distributor is increasing rates again this month.

This is the seventh straight month that Meralco upwardly adjusted its household power rates.

In an advisory, Meralco said it will increase overall electricity rates for a typical household by P0.0283 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), bringing the overall household rate to P9.1374/kWh from September’s rate of P9.1091/kWh.

The power distribution company attributed the upward rate adjustment to higher transmission charge.

The increment translates to an increase of P5.66 for those consuming 200 kWh, P8.49 for customers consuming 300 kWh, and P14.15 for households consuming 500 kWh of electricity.

Meralco said that transmission charge drove the overall rate increase.

In particular, transmission charge for residential customers increased by P0.0282/kWh to P0.7085/kWh from P0.6803/kswh “due to higher ancillary service charges, which accounted for about 33% of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ (NGCP) total transmission costs.”

Meanwhile, Meralco said the increase in overall rates was partially tempered by its continued implementation of the Distribution Rate True-Up refund which began in March 2021.

The refund rate for residential customers is at P0.2761/kWh and appears in customer bills as a line item called “Dist True-Up.”

To recall, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) provisionally approved Meralco’s proposal to refund around P13.9 billion over a period of 24 months or until the amount is fully refunded.

The amount represented the difference between the Actual Weighted Average Tariff and the ERC-approved Interim Average Rate for distribution-related charges for the period July 2015 to November 2020.

The October generation charge, on the other hand, registered a slight decrease of P0.0004/kWh to P5.0435/kWh from P5.0439/kWh in September.

“Lower average capacity on outage and average demand in the Luzon grid during September supply month pulled down charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) by P1.2061/kWh,” Meralco said.

The share of WESM to Meralco’s total requirement was higher at 13.4% during the month, it said.

Charges from Independent Power Producers (IPPs), which decreased by P0.0527/kWh, also contributed to the generation charge reduction.

“The cost of using alternative liquid fuel during the Malampaya gas supply restriction in September was not yet included in the charges and will be billed in subsequent months,” Meralco said.

Charges from Power Supply Agreements (PSAs), meanwhile, increased by P0.3156/kWh to P4.9417/kWh from September’s P4.6261/kWh “largely due to higher fuel prices and the peso’s depreciation.”

IPPs and PSAs accounted for 37.1% and 49.5%, respectively, of Meralco’s energy requirement.

Taxes and other charges registered a slight increase of P0.0005/kWh.

The collection of the Universal Charge-Environmental Charge amounting to P0.0025/kWh also remains suspended, as directed by the ERC.

Meralco reiterated that it does not earn from the pass-through charges from generation and transmission, as payments go to the power suppliers and the system operator, respectively, while taxes, universal charges, and Feed-in Tariff Allowance (FIT-All) are remitted to the government.

Distribution, supply, and metering charges which are the only costs that go to Meralco have remained unchanged for 75 months as of October, after registering reductions in July 2015.

No disconnection in MECG, granular lockdown areas

Meralco said that service disconnection activities remain suspended in areas under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) and granular lockdowns.

With this, the power distributor said disconnection activities remained suspended in Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal and Lucena City in Quezon, which are still under MECQ from October 1 to 15.

Also covered by the suspension are areas in the National Capital Region (NCR) that were placed under granular lockdown by their respective local government units until October 15.

For other areas under general community quarantine (GCQ), Meralco assured it will be “very considerate” to customers who need more time to settle their bills.—AOL, GMA News