Manila Electric Co. said Tuesday customers will experience a slight upward adjustment in power rates of P0.0448 per kilowatt-hour for households consuming an average of 200 kwh this month.
Meralco, the country’s biggest power retailer, said in a statement the adjustment would mean an increase of around P9 in the monthly bill.
Meralco said the overall electricity rates climbed to P9.0862 per kWh in October from P9.0414 per kWh in September.
“Even with the slight increase this month, following five straight months of decrease, there has been a total downward adjustment of electricity rates amounting to almost P1.47 per kWh since April,” the company said.
Meralco said the smaller net settlement surplus refund from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market led to the overall generation charge increase of P4.5406 per kWh, a slight increase of P0.0215 per kWh from P4.5191 per kWh.
Charges from the WESM, the country’s trading floor of electricity, declined by P0.5290 per kWh amid an improved power supply situation in the Luzon grid as there were fewer power plants on outage during the supply month.
Meralco said WESM charges this month also included the second installment of the NSS refund, as directed by the Energy Regulatory Commission in an order dated Aug. 1.
The power rate reduction in September was partially due to an NSS refund of P684 million. The NSS refund is smaller for October at around P381 million.
Meralco sourced 17 percent of its power requirements from the WESM during the September supply month.
Meanwhile, the cost of power from Meralco’s independent power producers declined by P0.1512 per kWh due to the strengthening of the peso against the US dollar. Around 97 percent of IPPs costs were dollar-denominated.
The company said these partly offset the power supply agreement charges, which increased by P0.3694 per kWh mainly due to lower average plant dispatch. IPPs and PSAs provided 40 percent and 43 percent, respectively, of Meralco’s supply needs last month.
Meralco said the transmission charges for residential customers slightly increased by P0.0249 per kWh as a result of higher ancillary service charges while taxes and other charges dropped by P0.0016 per kWh.
Meralco said its distribution, supply and metering charges were unchanged for 51 months, after these registered reductions in July 2015.
