Electricity rate increases in December

Charges from the WESM increased by P1.0799 per kWh driven by tighter supply conditions in the Luzon grid

WESM charges pushed up by power plant outages

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) announced Monday an increase in power rates as the overall rate for a typical household consuming 200kWh increases to P9.8623 per kWh this December from last month’s P9.5579 per kWh.

The adjustment of P0.3044 per kWh will mean an increase of around P61 in the typical household’s total electricity bill.

Despite the adjustment, the electricity rate this month is still around P0.70 per kWh lower than in April 2019. Higher WESM charges lead to overall generation charge increase.

From P5.0317 per kWh last month, the generation charge for December increased to P5.1967 per kWh, an upward adjustment of P0.1650 per kWh.

Charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) increased by P1.0799 per kWh driven by tighter supply conditions in the Luzon grid. As a result, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines placed the Luzon Grid on Yellow Alert on two occasions.

The average capacity on outage in November increased by 525 MW because of scheduled and forced outages of some power plants and the natural gas supply restriction of Malampaya onshore gas plant implemented by SPEX from 10 to 14 November. The share of WESM to Meralco’s supply needs was reduced to 10 percent.

Meanwhile, the cost of power from the independent power producers (IPP) and power supply agreements also increased by P0.1106 per kWh and P0.0987 per kWh, respectively, due to lower average dispatch and weakening of the peso against the US dollar.