Power rates will decrease P0.0704 per kilowatt-hour in February, translating into a P14 reduction in the monthly bill of residential customers consuming 200 kWh, Manila Electric Co. said Monday.
Meralco said power rates declined to P8.6793 per kWh in February from P8.7497 per kWh in January. It was also P0.1830 per kWh lower than the February 2020 rate of P8.8623 per kWh.
“The main driver of this reduction is mainly the generation cost,” Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said.
The February generation charge amounted to P4.4152 per kWh, or P0.0422 lower than the January generation charge of P4.4574 per kWh.
Meralco said this month’s generation charge was also lower than last year’s rate of P4.5090 per kWh.
“The reduction in generation charge this month is due to lower fixed charges from the power supply agreements,” Zaldarriaga said.
Charges from Meralco’s independent power producers rose P0.2103 per kWh on lower average plant dispatch, higher Malampaya natural gas prices because of the quarterly repricing and the peso depreciation against the US dollar.
Meralco said rates from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, the country’s trading floor of electricity, also increased by P0.9577 per kWh because of higher average plant capacity on outage in the Luzon grid.
Meralco sourced a bulk of its power requirements from PSAs amounting to 53.4 percent, IPPs at 39.5 percent and the WESM at 7.1 percent.
Meralco said the February rate includes the adjustments in the company’s pass-through over/under-recoveries for the period January 2017 to December 2019 as approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission.
ERC, in an order released Dec. 29, directed Meralco to refund over-recoveries in transmission and other charges over a period of three months until fully refunded and to collect an under-recovery in the generation rate for 24 months until fully collected.
Meralco implemented the ERC-approved adjustments starting the January billing. The initial impact to residential customers is a net refund of around P0.1150 per kWh.
Meanwhile, Meralco said the transmission charges also registered a reduction of P0.0128 per kWh because of lower ancillary service charges while taxes and other charges declined by P0.0154 per kWh.
The collection of the universal charge-environmental charge amounting to P0.0025 per kWh remained suspended, as directed by the ERC.
Meralco’s distribution, supply, and metering charges were unchanged for 67 months.