Manila Electric Co. said Wednesday power rates will decline P0.41 per kilowatt-hour in January, translating into a reduction of P82 in the monthly bill of a typical household consuming 200 kWh.
Meralco said overall power rates would decrease to P9.4523 per kWh in January from P9.8623 per kWh in December. It is also P0.3862 per kWh lower than the January 2019 rate of P9.8385 per kWh.
The power retailer attributed the lower generation rates in January to the lower charges from power supply agreement suppliers, which dropped by P0.2928 per kWh to P4.9039 per kWh from P5.1967 per kWh in December.
The company secured 49.4 percent of its power requirements from PSAs during the period.
“Lower PSA charges were brought about by a reduction in capacity fees as a result of the annual reconciliation of outage allowances done at the end of each year under the PSAs approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission. The early completion of annual capacity payment for Sual Unit 1, Ilijan, Pagbilao Unit 1 and Panay Energy resulted in savings immediately passed on to consumers by way of lower electricity rates,” Meralco public information office head Joe Zaldarriaga said.
The cost of power from Meralco’s independent power producers also decreased by P0.0634 per kWh because of improved dispatch and strengthening of the peso against the US dollar.
Around 96 percent of IPPs costs were dollar-denominated. Meralco sourced 41.2 percent of its supply requirement from IPPs.
Meanwhile, charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, the country’s trading floor of electricity, increased by P1.7031 per kWh driven by tighter supply condition in the Luzon grid.
Grid operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines placed the grid under yellow alert from Nov. 26 to 28 and on Dec. 16 because of the forced and scheduled outages of various power plants.
The Luzon grid was also placed on red alert on Dec. 3 with the limited availability of plants in Batangas and Quezon because of Typhoon Tisoy.
Meralco sourced 9.4 percent of its requirements from the WESM during the December supply month.
Transmission charges on residential customers also went down this month by P0.0517 per kWh as a result of lower NGCP ancillary service charges. Taxes and other charges also registered a decrease of P0.0656 per kWh.
Meralco said its distribution, supply, and metering charges were unchanged for 54 straight months.
