RE FIT-ALL lifts Meralco April rates

by Myrna Velasco April 6, 2016
www.mb.com.ph/re-fit-all-lifts-meralco-april-rates

The Filipino consumers’ sacrifice for cleaner air via the feed-in-tariff allowance (FIT-All) for renewable energy projects had primarily driven up the rates of Manila Electric Company (Meralco) by a magnitude of P0.22 per kilowatt hour (kwh) this month.

The other rate component that triggered upswing in the current electric bills is the P0.08 per kwh uptick in generation charge, a pass-on cost of the power generators.

For the FIT-All, this was just recently approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to go higher to P0.1240 per kwh from previously at P0.0406 per kwh. It has been mandated for implementation in the bills starting this April.

According to Meralco, a typical household consuming 200 kilowatt hours will experience an average P44 hike in their April electric bills.

“The FIT-All will start to reflect a charge of P0.12 per kwh beginning this month, from P0.04 per kwh. This is in compliance with the provisional approval issued by the ERC last February,” Meralco has reiterated.

The other line items that pulled up this month’s electric bills include the ancillary services component in the transmission charge which had been higher by P0.01 per kwh; as well as taxes and charges which went up by P0.03 per kwh.

For the increase in generation charge, the utility firm explained that this was ignited mainly by the typical surge in demand – which is a normal phenomenon on higher consumption months due to the scorching weather.

Nevertheless, Meralco qualified that at the estimated rate of P8.86 per kwh this month, this is still lower by P1.82 per kwh on a month-to-month comparison, vis-à-vis last year’s P10.68 per kwh.

“This increase in the generation charge is primarily due to the higher charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, which went up by P2.23 per kwh,” Meralco said.

It emphasized that peak demand in the Luzon grid already climbed “by more than 500MW from February to March supply months” – and this has been generally traced to the approaching peak of summer months.

By supply source, Meralco stressed that cost procurements from its power supply agreements (PSAs) and contracted independent power producers (IPPs) have been down slightly by P0.02 per kwh and P0.01 per kwh, respectively.

“These reductions in the PSA and IPP charges were mainly due to the higher dispatch of a number of plants under them, along with the appreciation of the peso in March,” the distribution firm added.

It noted that the share of its PSAs in last month’s supply base had been 49.2-percent; IPPs logged a share of 45.6-percent; and a marginal percentage of 5.3 percent from the electricity spot market.