by Myrna Velasco August
8, 2016
Residential customers
will enjoy a reduction of average P0.11 per kilowatt hour (kwh) in their
electric bills this month, according to Manila Electric Company.
But this rate relief
may just be temporary with anticipation that electric bills will go up in
September due to persistent tight supply conditions in the Luzon grid from the
latter part of July until this early part of the month.
As this developed, a
‘yellow alert’ condition had been declared anew for Luzon grid on Monday
(August 8) despite depressed demand due to cold weather brought about by the
onset of low pressure area (LPA) in the area.
Until the simultaneous
shutdowns of power plants are resolved and their capacities are brought back
on-line, it will be a continuous torment of brownout threats for consumers in
the grid.
For this August, the
utility firm noted that its overall rate had been cut to P8.50 per kwh from
last month’s P8.61 per kwh. Households with average consumption then of 200
kilowatt hours will have corresponding cost reduction in their bills amounting
to P22.
“The reduction is due
to the downward movement in the generation charge, which more than offset a
higher transmission charge,” Meralco has explained. Ancillary services or the
reserves procurement cost of National Grid Corporation of the Philippines
(NGCP) had been higher by P0.08 per kwh; and there had also been concomitant
upward adjustment in taxes and other charges by P0.01 per kwh.
On a month-to-month
comparison, this year’s August rate is still P0.62 per kwh vis-à-vis last
year’s level of P9.12 per kwh.
Meralco further noted
that “the decrease in the overall rate is primarily due to the generation
charge, which is lower by P0.20 per kwh,” with billings from the Wholesale
Electricity Spot Market (WESM) softening by a substantial scale of P3.48 per
kwh.
The downtrend in spot
market prices had been more than enough to offset the R0.16 per kwh hike in
procurement cost that the utility firm had with its contracted independent
power producers (IPPs). That had been mainly due “to the lower dispatch of San
Lorenzo and Sta Rita (gas plants).”
Next month, however,
will be an entirely different story as the impact of power supply deficiency
persisting in the past three weeks may already make its dent in the electric
bills.
Meanwhile, for supply
sourced from Meralco’s power supply agreements (PSAs), prices had been
relatively “flattish’, with just a very negligible upward adjustment of P0.002
per kwh.
The contracted IPPs and
bilateral supply deals remained to be the main source of power for Meralco last
month with 49.3-percent and 40.3-percent shares, respectively.
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