By Myrna M. Velasco
As anticipated, the pass-on rate of power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will be up by P0.4717 per kilowatt hour (kwh) in this November billing cycle.
(KJ ROSALES / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO
For the utility firm’s customer base in the 200-kwh consumption range, the aggregate increase in their bills will be as much as P94 - and that is generally in the bracket of typical households.
Chiefly, Meralco is attributing this month’s rate hike to the higher charges in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in the October supply month and reflected on the November billing.
The generation charge in particular - which accounts for the biggest component in the electric bills, this has gone up by P0.4911 per kwh to P5.0317 per kwh from P4.5406 per kwh in October.
Meralco emphasized that charges from the power spot market had climbed significantly by P3.8016 per kwh and that had been mainly driven by tight supply conditions last month as some gas plants’ availability had been affected by the four-day shutdown of the Malampaya gas production facility.
For the other components of its rates pass-on, Meralco noted that the ancillary services component of the charges of system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) had been down by P0.0767 per kwh; while taxes and other charges incurred an increase of P0.0573 per kwh.
Despite this billing cycle’s rate hike though, Meralco pointed out that its overall rates is still lower by roughly P1.00 per kWh if reckoned from April billing, which was the start of the series of its rate reductions within this year.
On supply tightening last month that became the trigger for upward adjustments in November billing, it was noted that the two-day incidents of yellow alert during the maintenance downtime of the Malampaya facility made a dent on the rates.
The other factor that had driven up the rates was the lower scale of the net settlement surplus (NSS) from the WESM - that just stood at P21 million compared to the aggregate P1.0 billion in September and October billings.
By supply sourcing, Meralco indicated that its volume procurement from the WESM hovered at 16-percent in October; while its offtake from independent power producers had been at 39-percent; and the bulk of 45-percent from power supply agreements.
The rates of its PSAs had been down by P0.2643 per kwh last month; while IPP rates had been lower by P0.0476 per kwh in the last supply month.