Published
By Myrna M. Velasco
With several incidents
of yellow alerts in March indicating supply tightness in the grid, the power
rates to be billed by Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will increase in this
April billing.
In a statement, Meralco
noted that the generation charge component in the rates in particular had gone
higher due to the reserve-deficient situation in the grid, which consequently
triggered spot prices to go up in the last supply month.
At the same time, the
Philippine peso depreciation against the US dollar contributed to the factor
that increased the electricity tariffs in this billing cycle, according to
Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga.
No figures have been
provided by Meralco yet as of press time, with the utility firm noting that
calculations are still being finalized from the billings sent by their power
suppliers and reckoning it also with the other cost components like the
transmission charge and taxes.
It has to be noted that
in March, about four incidents of yellow alerts had strained the power system
due to the unplanned outages and de-rating of roughly 10 generating units.
De-rating means a plant’s level of electricity generation cannot go to the
usual optimized level.
And the yellow alert
situations are seen persisting this month, with Luzon grid tormented with five
days of reserve scant situation from April 1 to 5 already.
No less than the
Department of Energy (DOE) has set off indications that power bills will be
continually on uptick for the month of May – chiefly due to similar reasons as
forced outages and reduced generation capacity of power plants.
The energy department
cannot provide concrete information yet on when the technically malfunctioning
plants will be back in the power system and when the “yellow alert” conditions
in the power grid will cease – given the fact also that the summer months
generally push up demand to peak levels.
The DOE cannot also
answer media queries on the penalty provision or accountabilities that the
plants would have been answerable to given the recurrent forced outages in
their generating assets.
As noted by Energy
Undersecretary Felix William B. Fuentebella, the yellow alerts may still
continue but what they have been trying to avoid as a “worst case scenario”
will be the occurrence of power interruptions or rolling brownouts especially
during the mid-elections culminating in May 13 this year.
The energy department
has persistently insisted that “there’s nothing to worry about the yellow alerts,”
but given that their cost impacts are now showing up in the electric bills, it
will be time for consumers to be agitated on such inefficiencies in their
electricity service.
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