Power rates to drop in June, says Meralco

posted June 07, 2016 at 11:40 pm by  Alena Mae S. Flores

http://thestandard.com.ph/business/207610/power-rates-to-drop-in-june-says-meralco.html

Residential customers of Manila Electric Co. will see their monthly power bills decline by an average of P0.13 per kilowatt-hour this month on lower generation charges.

Meralco said in a statement the residential rate for a typical household consuming 200 kWh would go down by P0.13 per kWh to P8.32 per kWh in June.

“This translates into a reduction of around P25 in their electricity bill. The reduction is due to the downward movement in the generation charge, which more than offset a higher transmission charge,” the power distributor said.

Meralco said generation charges went down by P0.16 per kWh in June, compared to the previous month. The generation cost was also the lowest since October 2004.

Charges from the wholesale electricity spot market, the country’s trading floor of electricity, went down by P0.98 per kWh following fewer generator outages during the May supply month.

WESM’s final effective settlement spot prices for the May billing period declined to P2.94 per kWh from P4.34 per kWh in April, despite the high temperature.

“It must be stressed that only those utilities that bought from the spot market will realize an impact from the dip of spot pries. The increase in generation offers is seen as a factor in the decline of market prices. The rise in generation offers during the critical summer period and election season can be attributed to increase in registered capacities in the registered capacities with influx of solar power plants and less scheduled outages,” Philippine Electricity Market Corp. president Melinda Ocampo said.

Ocampo said that barring any major plant outages, the high reserves and the impact of renewable energy would “really pull down prices” in the next few months.

Meralco sourced 12.8 percent of its power requirements from WESM in May, up from 11.7 percent  in April.

Cost of power from Meralco’s independent power producers also decreased by P0.22 per kWh following an improvement in the dispatch of Quezon Power Philippines Ltd.

Meralco sourced bulk if its power requirements from PSAs at 46.1 percent and the remaining 41.1 percent from IPPs in tMay.

The lower generation charge more than offset an increase in the transmission charge of P0.066 per kWh due to higher ancillary service charges.

The transmission charge will include the collection of an ancillary service differential that will go to the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. beginning June and up to November.

Taxes and other charges also decreased by a combined amount of P0.033 per kWh. Meralco’s distribution, supply, and metering charges remained unchanged for 11 months, after they registered a reduction in July 2015.