Meralco rates down in October

The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) on Monday announced lower rates for the month of October, on the back of lower feed-in-tariff allowance and generation charges during the period.

Meralco said the overall rate for a typical household was reduced by 7.37 centavos per kilowatt-hour (/kWh) to P9.8628/kWh from the P9.9365/kWh in September.

The latest adjustments will translate to an estimated reduction of P15 in the total electricity bill of customers consuming 200 kWh.

Meralco attributed the decline to the reduction in the feed-in-tariff allowance which was reduced by 6.19 centavos/kWh, after the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approved lower collection starting October.

Generation charges for the month were also reduced by 2.01 centavos/kWh to P6.9192/kWh from P6.939/kWh in the past month, owing to lower costs from the company’s supply contracts.

Meralco said charges from independent power producers (IPPs) and power supply agreements (PSAs) also decreased during the month, with both cumulatively accounting for 96% of the firm’s energy requirement for the period.

“The lower IPP and PSA charges were able to more than offset higher charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM),” Meralco said in an emailed statement.

Charges in the WESM increased by P4.8128 to P11.9990/kWh, largely driven by the tight supply conditions on the Luzon grid as both demand and outage increased.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) last month placed the Luzon Grid on Red Alert status, indicating that there is zero ancillary service or that a generation deficiency exists.

Meralco on Monday also assured that it will exhaust remedies to prevent the termination of the agreements with South Premiere Power Corp. (SPPC) and San Miguel Energy Corporation (SMEC), after the ERC rejected the power rate hike petitions filed by the parties.

“We would like to assure our customers that we will exhaust all remedies to prevent termination of the PSAs with SPPC and SMEC since we believe that preserving these contracts will still be least-cost for our customers,” Meralco FVP Atty. Jose Ronald Valles said.

“Should SPPC and SMEC decide to pursue the contract termination, we will ensure continuity of stable, reliable and adequate supply for our customers by getting supply from other sources like the WESM and other generation companies,” he added.

Meralco constructs, operates, and maintains electric distribution systems in the cities and municipalities of Bulacan, Cavite, Metro Manila, and Rizal, as well as certain areas in the provinces of Batangas, Laguna, Pampanga, and Quezon.

The firm counts as subsidiaries and associates Vantage Energy Solutions and Management Inc. and MeridianX Inc., acting as retail electricity suppliers in Luzon and the Visayas. — RSJ, GMA News