Power rates will slightly increase this month, on higher generation charges and weaker peso, power retailer Manila Electric Co. said Monday.
Meralco said the cost of electricity rose P0.0633 per kilowatt-hour in April to P10.5594 per kWh from P10.4961 per kWh in March. The increase would translate into an additional P13 in the monthly bill of a typical household consuming 200 kWh.
Meralco’s generation charges climbed to P5.6322 per kWh in April from P5.5973 per kWh in March.
“The generation charge increase is primarily due to higher charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market and the weakening of the peso against US dollar,” the company said.
Meralco said the P1.2815-per-kWh increase in WESM charges in April was brought about by the tighter supply in the Luzon grid. Meralco sources part of its power supply from the WESM, the country’s trading floor of electricity.
Grid operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines placed the grid under yellow alert on March 5, 7 and 8 because of the insufficient operating reserves, as several power plants suffered outages and de-rating.
Meralco sourced about 10.4 percent of its power supply from WESM.
Cost of power from the company’s independent power producers also increased by P0.0881 per kWh as the peso depreciated against the US dollar. About 95 percent of IPP charges are dollar-denominated.
Charges from the power supply agreements of Meralco went down by P0.2796 per kWh. IPPs and PSAs provided 41.4 percent and 48.2 percent of Meralco’s supply needs, respectively.
Meralco said that as approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission, the feed-in tariff allowance went down by P0.0337 per kWh, while the universal charges for stranded debts went up by P0.0163 per kWh, resulting in a net reduction of P0.0174 per kWh.
Transmission charges, taxes and other charges to residential customers increased by P0.0458 per kWh.
Meralco said its distribution, supply and metering charges remained unchanged.
Meralco said it was not earning from the pass-through charges, such as the generation and transmission charges.
Meralco also encouraged its customers to continue practicing energy efficiency initiatives to help manage their electricity consumption amid the increased demand due to the high temperature.