Generation charges of Manila Electric Co. may go up this month due to higher rates at the Wholesale Electricity Electricity Spot Market and the impact of the peso depreciation.
Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said Tuesday the anticipated higher generation charges could push up November power rates. Meralco is set to announce this month’s generation charges this week.
“There are indications that generation charge will likely increase, which may push up total electricity rates up for the month of November, since gen charge accounts for more than 50 percent of the rate component,” Zaldarriaga said.
He attributed the higher generation charges to the higher WESM rates because of tight supply conditions last month when a number of plants went on unscheduled outages.
“Likewise, peso depreciation also strongly effects gen charge movement. In October, the peso weakened against the US dollar which may also influence generation prices,” Zaldarriaga said.
He said the exchange rate in October was also the highest since August 2006.
Meralco’s rates rose slightly in October by P0.0345 per kilowatthour for a typical residential household due to the higher generation charges, which were offset by the reduction in other charges.
The overall rate climbed to P9.2836 per kWh in November from last month’s P9.2491 per kWh.
Meralco’s overrall generation charge increased in October by P0.1777 per kWh to P4.7155 per kWh from P4.5378 per kWh in September “primarily due to the completion of the 2014-2016 Meralco-petitioned refund in the previous month, which lowered the September generation charge rate compared to the October generation charge.”
