Customers of Manila Electric Co. will experience a reprieve after the power retailer announced a P0.0966-per-kilowatt-hour reduction in power rates in October.
Meralco said the overall electricity rates dropped to P9.9766 per kWh this month, from P10.0732 per kWh in September because of lower charges from power supply agreements.
The P0.0966-per-kWh decrease will mean a downward adjustment of around P19 in the monthly bill of a typical household consuming 200 kWh.
“We are pleased to announce that despite prices of other basic goods and commodities generally going up, Meralco customers can find some relief in the decrease of power rates these past two months, as this goes against the current trend that we see with other products,” said Meralco spokesperson and head of public information office Joe Zaldarriaga.
Meralco’s generation charge for October declined P0.0811 per kWh to P5.1908 per kWh from P5.2719 per kWh last month.
The company attributed the lower generation charge to the P0.2790-per-kWh reduction in charges of plants under power supply agreements. Meralco sourced 36 percent of its power requirements from its PSAs.
“Despite the weakening of the peso against the US dollar and the scheduled maintenance outage of Sual Unit 1 that started on Aug. 31, the cost of power from PSAs went down due to higher dispatch of Masinloc and Ilijan plants,” Meralco said.
Meralco said the lower PSA charges offset the P0.0414-per-kWh increase in cost of power from independent power producers as a result of continued peso depreciation.
About 96 percent of IPP costs are denominated in US dollars. Meralco sourced 41 percent of its requirements from its IPPs.
Cost of power from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market slightly increased by P0.2981 per kWh due to lower availability of power plants in the Luzon grid.
Meralco sourced 23 percent of its power requirements from the WESM, the country’s trading floor of electricity during the supply month.
Transmission charge of residential customers increased by P0.0111 per kWh led by the increase in National Grid Corp. of the Philippines’ ancillary service charges.
Taxes and other charges went down by P0.0266 per kWh this month.
Meralco’s distribution, supply, and metering charges were unchanged for 39 months.