Lower power rates seen this month

MANILA, Philippines — Customers will see lower electricity bills this month as the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) announced a reduction of 37.85 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kwh) in overall rates on the back of a stronger peso and lower spot market prices.

Meralco said the overall month’s rate amounted to P9.2487 per kwh, compared to last month’s P9.6272 per kwh.

Households consuming 200 kwh a month will see a decrease of P75.7 in their bills; P113.55 for 300 kwh, P151.40 for 400 kwh and P189.25 for 500 kwh.

The decline was attributed to the reduction in generation charge, which went down by 30.35 centavos per kwh from P4.9080 per kwh last month to P4.6045 per kwh, Meralco said.

The peso’s appreciation and lower Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) charges mainly pulled down the generation charge.

“The power supply situation improved from October, when the grid experienced three instances of yellow alerts,” Meralco said.

Meanwhile, charges from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) also registered decreases of P0.2191 per kwh and P0.3244 per kwh, respectively, mainly due to the strengthening of the peso against the US dollar.

“The peso-dollar exchange rate affects around 97 percent of IPP and 60 percent of PSA charges,” the power distributor said.

WESM purchases contributed 12 percent to Meralco’s total requirement this month while IPPs and PSAs each provided 44 percent.

Apart from the generation charge, other bill components were also lower this month.

Transmission charge of residential customers decreased by P0.0186 per kwh due to lower transmission wheeling and ancillary charges.

Taxes and other charges also went down by P0.0564 per kwh this month.

For Meralco’s distribution, supply and metering charges, the rate has remained unchanged for 29 months, after these registered reductions in July 2015.