Meralco generation charge to dip

Manila Standard Today

By Alena Mae S. Flores | Mar. 06, 2014 at 12:01am 

Manila Electric Co.’s generation charge may go down below P5.5359 per kilowatthour over moderate demand arising from the cool weather, an official said Wednesday. 
“There are strong indications that March gen charge will be lower than February’s, based on information we currently have. Demand remained moderate because of cool weather while supply situation was normal,” Meralco head of utility economics Lawrence Fernandez told reporters. 
The charge dipped to P5.5359 per kWh in February, a P0.1314 reduction from the P5.6673 per kWh implemented in January. 
“We’re still waiting for billing adjustments and we’ll know final numbers probably by Monday,” Fernandez said. 
The cost of supply from our power supply agreements, independent power producers, and from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, the country’s trading floor of electricity have all gone down during the February supply month, Meralco collects the generation charge, which comprises majority of the electricity bill to pay for its power suppliers such as the IPPs, plants selling to Meralco under the power supply agreements and the WESM. 
Meralco’s distribution, supply, and metering charges account for only about 18 percent on the average of the total electricity bill. 
Joe Zaldarriaga, Meralco spokesman, said the company will refund customers the amount they have paid in the February bills corresponding to the deferred amount. 
“This will be done through credit to bill,” he said. 
Of the total 5.5 million customers of Meralco, only about 7 percent, or around 430,000 customers, received bills with deferred amount. Of the 5.5 million Meralco customers, only 0.67 percent or 37,000 customers, opted to pay the deferred amount last February (or around 8 percent of the 430,000 customers who received bills with deferred amount). 
Zaldarriaga said this corresponds to an estimated amount of P58 million. 
“We would like to reiterate that Meralco has no intention to collect the deferred amount,” he said. source