Meralco rates up P0.1048/kWh in December

Customers of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will have to tighten their belts this month as the power distributor is set to hike its household electricity rate for December.

In an advisory, Meralco announced it will increase its power rate by P0.1048 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), bringing the overall rate for a typical household toP11.9617 per kWh from P11.8569 per kWh the previous month.

This will translate to an increment of over P20 in the total electricity bill of a typical household consuming 200 kWh.

Meralco vice president and head of corporate communications Joe Zaldarriaga said that “this month's increase was largely due to higher generation charge, which goes to our power suppliers.”

In particular, generation charge grew by P0.1839 per kWh due to the increased costs from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and Power Supply Agreements (PSAs).

WESM charges rose by P0.2531 per kWh amid the tighter supply conditions in the Luzon grid.

Likewise, charges from PSAs increased by P0.1050 per kWh due to the peso’s depreciation, “which affected around 51% of PSA costs, and lower average PSA dispatch.”

The power distributor said that the hike in generation charge was offset by the P0.0410 per kWh decrease in charges from Independent Power Producers (IPPs). 

WESM, PSAs, and IPPs accounted for 31.4%, 40.2%, and 28.3%, respectively, of Meralco’s total energy requirement for the period.

Meanwhile, transmission charge decreased by P0.0940 per kWh due to lower ancillary service charges from the Reserve Market.

Taxes and other charges increased by P0.0149 per kWh.

“Pass-through charges for generation and transmission are paid to the power suppliers and the grid operator, respectively, while taxes, universal charges, and Feed-in Tariff Allowance (FIT-All) are all remitted to the government,” Meralco said.

Meralco said its distribution charge has not been adjusted since the P0.0360 per kWh reduction for a typical residential customer in August 2022.— RSJ/AOL, GMA Integrated News