Manila Electric Co. said Wednesday customers will experience higher power rates this month, after generation charges increased in the spot market.
Meralco, the country’s largest power retailer, said in a statement overall rates would increase by P0.055 per kilowatt-hour in December.
It said for a typical household consuming 200 per kWh, the monthly electricity bill would go up by P11, compared with November charges.
“The increase in the overall rates was primarily due to the generation charge, which increased by P0.046 per kWh from last month,” Meralco said.
Meralco’s generation charge was placed at P4.130 per kWh in December, up from P4.08 per kWh in November.
Charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, Luzon’s trading floor of electricity, went up by P0.535 per kWh mainly due to the lower generation of hydro-electric plants.
Meralco said there was also a higher extent of forced outages in November compared to October.
Meralco’s power supply under the power supply agreements also registered a slight increase of P0.009 per kWh, primarily due to lower dispatch of SEM Calaca coal plant and the increase in fuel cost of Ilijan natural gas plant driven by the weakening of the peso against the dollar.
The average rate of plants under independent power producers decreased by P0.005 per kWh, due to the higher dispatch of Sta. Rita natural gas plant.
Meralco’s sourced bulk of its power requirements from PSAs at 49.9 percent in November, 44.4 percent from IPPs and 5.7 percent from WESM.
The transmission charge registered an increase of P0.007 per kWh due to the higher ancillary service charges.
There was also a combined increase of P0.002 per kWh in taxes and other charges (system loss and subsidies) following the increases in the generation and transmission charges.
“After a cumulative net rate reduction for the past seven months of P2.133 per kWh, the overall rate for residential customers is up by P0.055 per kWh this month,” Meralco said.
Meralco said power prices for households would still end the year 13 percent lower than in December 2014.
This month’s overall rate of P8.605 per kWh is lower by P1.260 per kWh compared to P9.865 per kWh a year ago. This month’s overall rate is the fourth lowest since January 2010.
“The lower rates this 2015 were attributed to successive reductions in the generation charge starting May this year, coupled with a reduction in the distribution charge of Meralco in July,” Meralco said.
Meralco’s generation charge was placed at P4.130 per kWh this month, P0.807 per kWh lower than December 2014 and the third lowest since January 2010.
Meralco’ said its distribution, supply, and metering charges remain unchanged after it registered a reduction in July.