MANILA, Philippines – Electricity rates have gone down for the third straight month in October due to lower transmission and generation charges, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) announced yesterday.
October rates declined P0.1216 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) to P8.34 per kwh, lower compared to October 2015’s P8.42 per kWh.
“The reduction is due to downward movements in both generation and transmission charges,” Meralco said.
In terms of household consumption, the decrease is equivalent to P24.33 for 200 kwh, P36.49 for 300 kwh, P48.65 per kwh and P60.82 per kwh.
This month’s generation charge, which dipped P0.0501 per kwh from last month’s P3.9439 per kwh to P3.8938 per kwh, was weighed down by the lower charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
Meralco said spot prices decreased P1.4747 per kwh in September versus August due to lower demand, as Luzon grid’s peak demand was 300 megawatts (MW) less month-on-month.
Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
This offsets increases in independent power producers (IPPs) and power supply agreement (PSA) costs brought about by higher coal prices and the weaker peso against US dollar, from 46.58 to 48.50.
“Peso depreciation has an upward impact on the peso conversion of the dollar charges of the PSA and IPP plants,” Meralco said.
The cost of power sourced from plants under the PSAs increased P0.3257 per kwh primarily as coal price in the region continued to increase from $52.85 per metric ton (MT) in June to $67.41 per MT in August.
Meanwhile, IPP costs also increased P0.1671 per kwh because of the weaker peso against the dollar.
During the supply month, Meralco sourced 16.1 percent of its total requirements from WESM, 47.4 percent from PSAs and 36.3 percent from IPPs.
Meralco also noted a decrease in transmission charge by P0.0558 per kwh mainly due to the reduction in ancillary charges of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
