Meralco rates down this month

The overall tariff billed by Manila Electric Company (Meralco) to the wide base of its residential subscribers this January was down by 10.3418 per kilowatt hour (kwh) due to lower cost of supply procurement from power producers.

The average rate reflected in the bills for those in the 200-kilowatt hour consumption bracket then had been slashed to 19.8385 per kWh versus the previous month’s 110.1803 per kwh.

The generation charge component which accounts for the bulk of the passon rate, in particular, had been lower by 10.4184 per kWh to 14.9119 from the last billing cycle’s 15.3303 per kwh.

For the other charges in the billed rate, it was a reverse in the case of transmission charge that reflects the ancillary services procurement of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, as this had been up by 10.1210 per kWh in this billing month.

On the whole though, taxes as well as other charges still manifested overall cost decline of 10.0444 per kwh, according to the power utility firm.

Meralco said its supply sourcing from underwritten power supply agreements (PSAs) had been significantly down by as much as 11.2293 per kwh in December supply month. The PSAs had 40-percent share in the utility firm’s supply procurement pie.

Joe Zaldarriaga, the spokesperson of Meralco, has qualified that “the lower PSA charges were brought about by a reduction in capacity fees as a result of the annual reconciliation of outage allowances done at the end of each year.”

The consumer-favorable price trend for this billing period had also been reinforced by “the early completion of annual capacity payments for Sual unit 1, Ilijan, Pagbilao unit 1 and PEDC (Panay Energy Development Corp) – the power generators with supply agreements with Meralco.

Zaldarriaga explained that such redounded to savings “immediately passed on to consumers by way of lower electricity rates.”

The Meralco executive qualified though that “the capacity fees of the PSAs will return to normal levels in January,” and such will impact in the next billing month.