Meralco says electricity rate to increase this April

April 6, 2018

Meralco announced an increase in overall electricity rates for April, amounting to P0.2250 per kWh for a typical household. The higher April rate is mainly due to the P0.1773 per kWh increase in the generation charge, a company announcement said Friday.

The adjustment this month brings the overall rate to P10.55 per kWh from March’s P10.32 per kWh, equivalent to an increase of around P45 in the bill of a residential customer consuming 200kWh.

Last month, while electricity rates in March increased by P0.97 per kWh, only a P0.85 per kWh increase was implemented in order to cushion the impact of the higher electricity rates on consumers. Meralco said that the remaining balance is reflected in the rates this April.

From P5.2962 per kWh in March, the generation charge for this month will be P5.4735 per kWh.

Contributing to the generation charge increase were higher charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), which increased by P1.6441 per kWh because of tighter supply conditions in the Luzon grid.

With warmer temperatures, the demand for power in the grid increased by about 357 MW. Luzon was placed on yellow alert by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) on February 26 due to forced plant outages and restrictions in the supply of natural gas from Malampaya that affected the output of several power plants.

Natural gas supply from Malampaya continued to experience restrictions from February 26 to 27, March 3 to 5, and March 8 to 14.  The share of WESM purchases to Meralco’s total requirement this month was 15 percent.

The higher WESM charges were slightly offset by a P0.1412 per kWh decrease in the cost of power from Independent Power Producers (IPP), due to improved average plant dispatch.  The share of IPP purchases to Meralco’s total requirement this month was 39 percent.

Meanwhile, charges from plants under power supply agreements remained stable, inching up by P0.0077 per kWh. PSAs provided 46 percent of Meralco’s total energy requirement.

Transmission charge to residential customers slightly increased by P0.0065 per kWh due to higher ancillary service charges billed by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).  With the higher generation charge, taxes and other charges also went up, by P0.0412 per kWh this month. DMS