Lower Meralco rates this month
THE Manila Electric Company (Meralco) announced on Monday lower rates electricity for this month.
In an advisory, overall rate for a typical household went down by P0.0746 per kWh to P9.7027 per kWh from last month’s P9.7773 per kWh.
This is equivalent to a reduction of around P15 in the total bill of residential customers consuming 200 kWh.
Generation charge in January decreased by P0.1081 per kWh to P5.4262 per kWh from last month’s P5.5343 per kWh, on the back of lower costs from Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) and Independent Power Producers (IPPs) that more than offset the higher charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
PSA and IPP rates registered reductions of P0.4375 and P0.0543 per kWh, respectively. The higher share of excess energy deliveries of AC Energy plants and lower coal prices contributed to the reductions.
Transmission charge for residential customers increased by P0.0728 per kWh, mainly due to higher ancillary service charges. Meanwhile, taxes and other charges registered a net reduction of P0.0393 per kWh.
Collection of the Universal Charge-Environmental Charge amounting to P0.0025 per kWh remains suspended, as directed by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
Meralco’s distribution, supply, and metering charges have remained unchanged for 78 months, after registering reductions in July 2015.
Meralco stressed that it does not earn from the pass-through charges, such as the generation and transmission charges, as payment for the generation charge goes to the power suppliers, while payment for the transmission charge goes to the NGCP. Taxes and other public policy charges like the Universal Charges and the Feed-in Tariff Allowance are remitted to the government.
