Customers of Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will experience slight financial relief on their pockets this month, as the electricity rate it will pass on will be lower by P0.0395 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in its November billing.

The utility firm’s overall tariff to be reflected in this billing cycle will be at P8.5105 per kWh from last month’s P8.55 per kWh; hence, this will result in overall reduction of P8.00 in the bills of those in the 200-kWh consumption threshold.

The major driver in the rate cut, according to the company, is the P0.0215 per kWh downtrend in generation charge to P4.2018 per kWh from P4.2233 per kWh – and that is the cost component which accounts for the bulk percentage of its pass-on rate.

For the transmission charge of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) owing to its ancillary services; as well as on taxes, these logged a net reduction of P0.0180 per kWh, according to Meralco.

The utility firm emphasized that the collection of universal charge-environmental charge in the amount of P0.0025 per kWh remains suspended, as earlier mandated by the Energy Regulatory Commission.

Meralco expounded the lower generaton charge was “mainly due to the P1.28 per kWh reduction in charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market,” because of improved power supply conditions in Luzon grid last month and the apparent reduction in demand because of weather disturbances.

The quarterly re-pricing on the Malampaya gas price and the appreciation of the Philippine peso versus the US dollar had likewise trimmed by P0.0842 per kWh the charges that had been billed by the contracted independent power producers (IPPs) of the company.

Conversely, for generated electricity sourced from its power supply agreements (PSAs), this climbed by P0.2118 per kWh; and this has been mainly attributed to the outage of the 414-megawatt San Gabriel gas-fired power plant.

The utility firm’s supply procurements in October had been predominantly from its PSAs with 53-percent share; then its contracted IPPs with 35-percent fraction in the pie; while its WESM exposure was at 12-percent.

Relative to the ‘no disconnection’ advisory issued by the ERC, Meralco apprised its customers that it will fully comply with the directive of the industry regulator.

“Meralco will not implement any disconnection on account of non-payment of bills until December 31, 2020 for consumers with monthly consumption of 200 kWh and below.”

And for customers in the usage threshold of 201 kWh and higher, the utility firm stipulated that it will be complying with the “minimum 30-day grace period that will be given on all payments falling due within the period of enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) without incurring interests, penalties and other charges.”

It specified that “any unpaid balance after the lapse of the 30-day grace period shall be payable in three (3) equal monthly installments without incurring interests, penalties and other charges.”