Meralco sees generation charge higher in July bill

By BusinessMirror - July 3, 2018

https://businessmirror.com.ph/meralco-sees-generation-charge-higher-in-july-bill/

THE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said on Tuesday that the generation charge for July is likely to go up from last month’s P4.9828 per kilowatt- hour (kWh).

Generation charge is the largest component of an electric bill. Last month’s generation charge was lower from the previous month’s P5.0523 per kWh.

“There are indications of a higher gen charge this July,” said Meralco Utility Economics head Lawrence Fernandez. He did not reveal actual figures since Meralco has yet to finalize its computation. It is expected to release this month’s power rates next week.

The Meralco official cited several yellow alert warnings and the peso depreciation as main reasons for the generation charge adjustment in June, which will be reflected in the July power bills of consumers.

“For one, we recall that the Luzon grid experienced several yellow alerts in the first half of the June supply month, when demand in Luzon reached a new high,” said Fernandez.

The Luzon grid was placed on yellow alert due to unexpected shutdowns and the limited generation of some power plants and high power demand.

A yellow alert means there are not enough reserves to cover the largest-running generating unit at the time but does not necessarily lead to power outages.

The highest peak load demand of 10,876 megawatts  was recorded for the Luzon grid, breaching this year’s peak demand forecast of 10,561 MW set by the Department of Energy’s Power Development Plan.