Electricity rates up; gas prices rolled back

MANILA, Philippines — Higher electricity rates are expected this month while fuel prices are rolled back today after two consecutive weeks of upward adjustments.

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) overall rates increased by 3.45 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kwh), pushed mainly by higher generation charge.

Gasoline prices, meanwhile, were slashed by P0.50 per liter; diesel prices by P0.40 per liter and kerosene, P0.85 per liter, on account of higher supply in the international market.

Meralco said the overall month’s rate amounted to P9.2836 per kwh, compared to last month’s P9.2491 per kwh.

Households consuming 200 kwh a month will see an increase of P6.91 in their bills, while those consuming 300 kwh can expect a P10.35 increase.

For those consuming 400 kwh and 500 kwh, additional P13.80 and P17.25 will reflect in their billing statements, respectively.

The country’s top power distributor said the October rate was driven by the P0.1777 per kwh jump in generation charge from P4.5378 per kwh to P4.7155 per kwh this month.

Meanwhile, higher fuel prices and lower average plant dispatch raised the cost of power from power supply agreements (PSAs) and independent power producers (IPPs).

Meralco gets 43 percent of its power requirements from PSAs and 45 percent from IPPs.

On the other hand, charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) decreased by P0.4382 per kwh, as lower power demand during the September supply month mitigated the impact of four yellow alert declarations last month. WESM provided 12 percent of Meralco’s requirements.

Meralco also said this month’s generation charge included the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM)’s recovery of incremental costs incurred by the National Power Corp. amounting to P21.5 million.

The ERC allowed PSALM to collect the amount from customers of affected distribution utilities over a period of 60 months. For customers in the Meralco service area, this is equivalent to an additional 1.2 centavos per kwh in the generation charge.

Other bill charges reflected reduction, which tempered the increase in generation charge.

Transmission charge decreased by P0.0593 per kwh, while taxes and other charges also went down by P0.0839 per kwh this month.

Meralco’s distribution, supply and metering charges have remained unchanged since July 2015.

Meanwhile, Petron Corp. and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. said the lower pump prices take effect at 6 a.m.

Flying V’s and SeaOil Philippines Inc.’s price adjustments begin after midnight while UniOil Petroleum Philippines Inc.’s price changes take effect 6:01 a.m.