Meralco hikes power rate by 32.97 centavos in December

Customers of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) shall brace for higher electricity bills this month as the power distributor hiked electricity rate amid the completion of an Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) mandated refund order.

In an advisory, Meralco said it will implement an upward rate adjustment of 32.97 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for the December billing month.

The adjustment brought the  overall rate for a typical household to P10.2769 per kWh  from the previous month’s P9.9472 per kWh.

With the rate hike, residential customers consuming 200 kWh shall expect an increase of around P66 in their total electricity bill this month.

“This month’s overall rate increase was mainly due to the completion of a distribution-related refund equivalent to P0.4669 per kWh for residential customers,” Meralco said.

In May, the ERC ordered Meralco to refund around P7.8 billion in excess collections, equivalent to P0.4669 per kWh for residential customers.

“There are still three ongoing refunds, totaling P1.3340 per kWh for residential customers, being implemented by Meralco that continue to temper customers’ monthly bills,” Meralco said.

“These are expected to be fully refunded by December 2022, January 2023, and May 2023, and the impact will subsequently be felt in the succeeding billing periods,” it added.

The company said its distribution charge has not moved since the P0.0360 per kWh reduction for a typical residential customer beginning August 2022.

Meralco said the upward adjustment was tempered by the generation charge, which went down by P0.1942 to P6.7975 from P6.9917 per kWh in November.

This, as charges from power supply agreements (PSAs) slipped by P0.2079 per kWh as the First Natgas-San Gabriel plant went back online on October 15 coming from a scheduled maintenance outage from October 1 to 14, according to the power distributor.

The peso’s appreciation, which affected 38% of PSA costs that are dollar-denominated, also contributed to the reduction, it said.

Meralco added that the generation charge was further pulled down by the P1.3985 per kWh reduction in Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) charges due to improved supply situation in the Luzon grid during the previous month.

“While average daily capacity on outage remained at the 3,900-megawatt (MW) level, the reduction in both peak and average demand in the November supply month resulted in fewer impositions of the secondary price cap, which was triggered only 21% of the time in November versus October's 52%,” it said.

Independent power producer (IPP) charges, meanwhile, rose by P0.0545 per kWh as the First Gas-Sta. Rita Module 10 was on scheduled outage from November 4 to 11 and on November 19 to 20, while Sta. Rita Module 40 was also on scheduled outage from November 12 to 27.

The peso’s appreciation tempered the increase in the IPP rate, as 98% of IPP costs were dollar-denominated, according to Meralco.

IPPs, PSAs, and WESM accounted for 41%, 52%, and 7%, respectively, of Meralco’s total energy requirement for the period.

Transmission charge for residential customers also increased by P0.0753 per kWh due to higher ancillary service charges of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

“Taxes and other charges registered a net decrease of P0.0183 per kWh mainly due to the absence of feed-in tariff allowance (FIT-All) following the issuance of the Energy Regulatory Commission’s Resolution, suspending the collection of P0.0364 per kWh FIT-All rate for three months starting the December 2022 until the February 2023 billing periods,” Meralco said.

The company said pass-through charges for generation and transmission are paid to the power suppliers and the grid operator, respectively, while taxes, universal charges, and FIT-All are all remitted to the government.—AOL, GMA Integrated News