Meralco rates up by ₱0.4717/kwh in November billing

As anticipated, the passon rate of power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will be up by ₱0.4717 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) in this November billing cycle.

For the utility firm’s customer base in the 200-kWh consumption range, the aggregate increase in their bills will be as much as ₱94 - and that is generally in the bracket of typical households.

Chiefly, Meralco is attributing this month’s rate hike to the higher charges in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in the October supply month and reflected on the November billing.

The generation charge in particular – which accounts for the biggest component in the electric bills, this has gone up by ₱0.4911 per kwh to ₱5.0317 per kwh from ₱4.5406 per kwh in October.

Meralco emphasized that charges from the power spot market had climbed significantly by ₱3.8016 per kwh and that had been mainly driven by tight supply conditions last month as some gas plants’ availability had been affected by the four-day shutdown of the Malampaya gas production facility.

For the other components of its rates pass-on, Meralco noted that the ancillary services component of the charges of system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) had been down by ₱0.0767 per kwh; while taxes and other charges incurred an increase of ₱0.0573 per kwh.

Despite this billing cycle’s rate hike though, Meralco pointed out that its overall rates is still lower by roughly ₱1.00 per kwh if reckoned from April billing, which was the start of the series of its rate reductions within this year.

On supply tightening last month that became the trigger for upward adjustments in November billing, it was noted that the two-day incidents of yellow alert during the maintenance downtime of the Malampaya facility made a dent on the rates.