Consumers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will experience higher rates of P0.1543 per kilowatt-hour in September 2024 on the back of increased transmission charges.
Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said this brought the overall rate for a typical household to P11.7882 per kWh from the previous month’s P11.6339 per kWh.
He said residential customers consuming 200 kWh would see an increase of P31 in their monthly electricity bill.
Zaldarriaga said the transmission charge for residential customers rose P0.2913 per kWh on higher ancillary service charges following the resumption of commercial operations of the reserve market on Aug. 5, 2024.
Total ancillary service charges from the reserve market were double the charges from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ (NGCP) ancillary service procurement agreements (ASPAs). The share of ancillary service charges to NGCP’s transmission rate rose to more than 50 percent.
Zaldarriaga said the higher transmission charge more than offset the reduction in the generation charge, which went down by P0.1547 per kWh.
Meanwhile, charges from Meralco’s power supply agreements (PSAs), independent power producers (IPPs) and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the trading floor of electricity, all registered reductions.
The power retailer attributed the decrease in the generation charge to the peso’s appreciation to its strongest level since December 2023, affecting 50 percent of PSA costs and 97 percent of IPP costs that were dollar-denominated. It said this led to the P0.2371 per kWh and P0.0529 per kWh reductions in PSA and IPP charges, respectively.
WESM charges also decreased by P0.0514 per kWh, factoring in the final of four installments of deferred May 2024 WESM costs earlier ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
Meralco sourced bulk of its power requirements from the PSAs at 46.2 percent, followed by the WESM at 27.3 percent and IPPs at 26.4 percent. Taxes and other charges registered a P0.0177 per kWh net increase.
Pass-through charges for generation and transmission are paid to the power suppliers and the grid operator, respectively, while taxes, universal charges and feed-in tariff allowance (FIT-All) are all remitted to the government.
Meralco’s distribution charge has not moved since the P0.0360 per kWh reduction for a typical residential customer in August 2022.
