By Myrna Velasco
Spikes still reign in the electric bill of Manila Electric Company (Meralco) this month, but it’s at a leaner P0.2250 per kilowatt hour (kWh) compared to the two previous billing months which exhibited comparative sharp increases.
The utility firm noted that this billing cycle’s upward adjustment had been mainly due to the P0.1773 per kWh hike in the generation charge component of the rates.
(KJ ROSALES / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO
For a typical household within the base consumption of 200 kWh, the total increase in their bills this April would be P45.
Overall, Meralco’s tariff had already climbed to P10.55 per kWh in this billing cycle, inching even higher from last month’s P10.32 per kWh.
It is also worth noting that from the pass-on costs in March, the power firm still has equivalent of P0.12 per kWh adjustment in the generation that had been carried over in this billing month.
“While electricity rates in March increased by P0.97 per kWh, only P0.85 per kWh increase was implemented in order to cushion the impact of the higher electricity rates on consumers,” hence, Meralco noted that the balance would have to be reflected in this month’s bills.
Other than the higher generation charge, the other cost components that pulled up power bills this month had been that of the ancillary services fraction of the transmission charge of National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, albeit at marginal P0.0065 per kWh; as well as tax components which went up by P0.0412 per kWh.
For the generation charge, this had gone higher to P5.4735 per kWh this April from the previous month’s P5.2962 per kWh.
Meralco stressed the major trigger to this had been the P1.6441 per kWh surge in prices from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) “because of tighter supply conditions in the Luzon grid.”
It expounded that with the scorching weather, demand had risen by 357 megawatts last month – and this is a trend seen sustained through the rest of the summer months.
With this comes the appeal of the utility firm then to its customers to smartly embrace energy efficiency as well as conservation on their usage of electrical appliances.