Manila Electric Co. announced Friday an increase of P0.2250 per kilowatt-hour in overall electricity rates for April, mainly due to the P0.1773 per kWh rise in the generation charge.
Meralco said in a statement the adjustment this month brought the overall rate to P10.55 per kWh from P10.32 per kWh in March.
Residential consumers with a monthly average consumption of 200 kWh will pay P45 more in their bill.
Meralco said month’s increase included the P0.12 per kWh balance of the supposed increase in March.
Electricity rates in March increased P0.97 per kWh but only P0.85 per kWh was implemented to cushion the impact of the higher electricity rates on consumers.
Meralco said the generation charge rose to P5.4735 per kWh this month from P5.2962 per kWh in March.
“Contributing to the generation charge increase were higher charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, which increased by P1.6441 per kWh because of tighter supply conditions in the Luzon Grid,” the electricity retailer said.
WESM serves as the country’s trading floor of electricity.
Meralco said demand for power in the grid increased by about 357 megawatts due to warmer temperatures.
“Luzon was placed on yellow alert by National Grid Corporation of the Philippines on February 26 due to forced plant outages and restrictions in the supply of natural gas from Malampaya that affected the output of several power plants,” the company said.
Natural gas supply from the Malampaya gas field was restricted from February 26 to 27, March 3 to 5, and March 8 to 14.
Meralco, meanwhile, secured 15 percent of its supply from the WESM during the March supply month.
The higher WESM charges were slightly offset by a P0.1412 per kWh drop in the cost of power from Independent Power Producers due to improved average plant dispatch. Meralco obtained 39 percent of its supply from the IPPs last month.
Charges from plants under Meralco’s power supply agreements, meanwhile, remained stable, inching up just P0.0077 per kWh. The PSAs provided 46 percent of Meralco’s total power requirements.
Meralco said the transmission charge to residential customers slightly increased by P0.0065 per kWh on higher ancillary service charges billed by NGCP, which operates the country’s transmission highway.
Taxes and other charges also increased by P0.0412 per kWh this month.
Meralco said its distribution, supply, and metering charges had remained unchanged for 33 months, after they dropped in July 2015.
Meralco, which has over six million customers, said it does not earn from the pass-through charges, such as the generation and transmission charges.
Payment for the generation charge goes to the power suppliers, while payment for the transmission charge goes to the NGCP. Taxes and other public policy charges like the FIT-All are remitted to the government.
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