MERALCO says electricity rates may go up in January due to tight power supply

Customers of Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) may see an increase in their electricity bills in January 2023 due to the thinning supply in the country’s power grids.

According to Maki Pulido’s report on “24 Oras” on Monday, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has raised a yellow alert on the Luzon grid twice this month, which indicates that the grid has thin reserves based on the difference between supply and demand.

NGCP also said four plants are on forced outages earlier while three are running on derated capacities for a total of 2,080 megawatts (MW) unavailable to the grid. Its available capacity reached 11,572MW — slightly higher than the operating requirement of 10,548MW.

The Department of Energy (DOE) said it will investigate the forced outages of the plants and reiterated that the NGCP should contract power reserves to ensure continuous electricity supply.

“Yes, wala silang mapagkukunan kung hindi sila nangongontrata sa specific firm...Pag nakontrata mo na ang isang planta or 'yung isang capacity as firm, then yes, for optimization, it will be available sa energy market, but ang priority, magiging reserve,” said DOE Director Mario Marasigan.

For its part, MERALCO said the tight power supply affects the electricity rates because power distributors tend to buy it at a higher price at the wholesale electricity spot market.

“Usually a series of yellow and red alerts result to higher costs of electricity. Papasok na ito doon sa supply month of December. So ang impact niyan nararamdaman sa bills sa Enero,” said MERALCO spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga.

NGCP said the country’s electricity requirements are usually low during “ber” months but they have no other resources should the power plants face forced outages.

“Nagkakasabay-sabay na sila. Ibig sabihin, kailangan mo nang magdagdag ng alternatibong supply o di kaya bagong investments para malaki 'yung pinagkukunan mo. Kaya maski sabay-sabay sila mag-out, mayroon ka pa ring pagkukuhanan ng kapalit,” NGCP Spokesperson Cynthia Abalanza said.—Sundy Locus/LDF, GMA Integrated News