By:
Ronnel W. Domingo - 05:12 AM February 09, 2019
Customers of Manila
Electric Co. will pay an additional 56.82 centavos a kilowatt-hour (kWh) this
month as power generation charges normalize after going down in January.
Meralco said in a
statement that this month’s hike would mean, for residential customers
consuming 200 kWh a month, an increase of P114 in their bill.
The distribution giant
said that for the February billing period, its overall charge went up to
P10.4067 a kWh from P9.8385 in the January billing.
The generation charge
alone rose by 98.2 centavos a kWh to P5.8939 from P4.9119 previously.
The company said there
was an increase of P1.9217 a kWh in the cost of electricity sourced through
power supply agreements (PSAs), which represented 37 percent of the company’s
supply.
This was mainly due to
the return to normal levels of capacity fees, particularly of Sual Unit 1,
Ilijan, Pagbilao Unit 1 and Panay Energy Development Corp.
“After the reduction in
PSA charges in January due to the early completion of annual capacity fee
payments for the previous year, capacity fees this month returned to levels
prescribed in the PSAs approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission,” Meralco
said.
Also, the price of
electricity sourced from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) went up
by P1.4141 a kWh. Meralco sourced 18 percent of its supply the WESM.
This was due to tighter
supply conditions in Luzon as several large power plants went on scheduled
maintenance outage.
On the other hand,
prices from independent power producers (IPPs) went down by 0.42 centavo a kWh
due to the strengthening of the peso against the dollar.
Supplies from
IPPs—about 96 percent of whose charges are dollar-denominated—accounted for 45
percent of Meralco’s purchases.
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