Power rates up

MANILA, Philippines – After four successive months of reductions, consumers will see an increase of 10 centavos per kilowatt-hour in their December electricity bills due to higher generation charge prompted by the peso depreciation.

Meralco yesterday announced the increase, which it said would be equivalent to an overall rate of P8.36 per kilowatt-hour – lower than last year’s rate of P8.61 per kwh.

This means a household with a consumption of 200 kwh will have to pay P20.22 more this month.

Meanwhile, an increase of P30.33 will reflect in the electricity bills of households consuming 300 kwh, P40.33 for those consuming 400 kwh and P50.54 for 500 kwh.

Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said the weakness of the peso vis-a-vis the US dollar is putting much pressure on generation cost.                                                                                 

He said foreign exchange movement has affected 96 percent of the cost of power sold by Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and by firms covered by power supply agreements.

Generation charge went up by P0.0915 per kwh as the peso depreciated from P46.58:$1 in August to P48.405:$1 in October and to P49.73:$1 in November.

Another reason for the generation charge increase is the lower dispatch from IPPs as the Sta. Rita Module 30 went on scheduled maintenance.

But mitigating the negative impact of peso depreciation is the drop in Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) charges, Zaldarriaga said.

Spot prices have remained low in November because of lower demand and fewer outages compared with last month.

Apart from the generation charge, transmission charge and taxes and other charges also rose for the month.

Transmission charge increased by P0.0031 per kwh mainly due to the slight increase in ancillary service charges.