Manila Electric Co. on Tuesday announced a slight increase in electricity rate for the month of August amounting to P0.1388 per kilowatt-hour.
The country’s largest power distribution company said the overall electricity rate for a typical residential household rose to P8.3849 per kWh this month from P8.2511 per kWh in July.
Meralco said this would mean a P27 increase in the total bill of a typical residential household consuming 200 kWh.
Meralco said the August rate also reflected the last installment of the refund of over-recovery on pass-through charges from January 2014 to December 2016 totaling around P6.9 billion.
The company’s petition for refund with an appeal for provisional authority was granted by the Energy Regulatory Commission on May 11, 2017 for implementation from June to August 2017.
The refund is not shown as a separate line item in the bill but is embedded in different pass-through charges indicated in the bill, which include generation, transmission and system loss charges and lifeline and senior citizen subsidies.
For residential customers, the refund translated into a reduction of P0.79 per kWh, excluding taxes.
Meralco also said the overall generation charge increased by P0.0378 per kWh, from P3.9385 per kWh in July to P3.9763 per kWh in August.
The cost of power from power supply agreements increased by P0.2222 per kWh due to lower plant dispatch resulting from forced outages of Masinloc and Pagbilao.
“The cost of power sourced from the independent power producers [IPPs] also increased, by P0.0642 per kWh. With the quarterly repricing of Malampaya natural gas, natural gas prices went up to reflect higher world crude oil prices. The share of PSAs and IPPs this month stood at 45.6 percent and 44 percent, respectively,” Meralco said.
Charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market decreased by P0.9768 per kWh, mitigating the increase in PSAs and IPPs rates. Prices in the spot market decreased in August due to lower power demand in the Luzon grid.
The share of WESM purchases to Meralco’s total requirements was 10.4 percent in August.
Meralco’s distribution, supply and metering charges remained unchanged for 25 months, after the registered reductions in July 2015.