Power rates are expected to be stable in October after five straight months of reduction, an executive of Manila Electric Co. said Monday.
“Generation costs are projected to go down for October. However, this may be offset by the smaller NSS [net settlement surplus] refund that we will receive from PEMC [Philippine Electricity Market Corp.],” Meralco vice president and head of utility economics Lawrence Fernandez said.
“It will be recalled that part of the September reduction was due to an almost P700-million NSS refund, which ERC [Energy Regulatory Commission] directed PEMC to implement. The refund amount for October is anticipated to be smaller [less than P400 million],” Fernandez said.
PEMC is the governing body of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, the country’s trading floor of electricity where Meralco sources part of its power requirements.
“Given the two factors [lower generation costs but smaller NSS refund), we expect power costs to remain stable, after five consecutive months of reductions,” Fernandez said.
Meralco announced last month a reduction of P0.5260 per kilowatt-hour, equivalent to P105 for households consuming an average of 200 kWh a month.