Power rates to increase this month due to increase in WESM charges
MANILA – The Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) today said a month after having the lower power rate from August 2017, there will be a slight upward trend adjustment this month. The overall rate for a typical household increased by P0.0872 per kWh, from March rate of P8.3195 to P8.4067 per kWh.
In a statement, Meralco said the increase is equivalent of around P17 should the total residential customers’ bill consuming 200 kWh. This month’s rate includes the ERC-approved adjustments for pass-through over/under recoveries for the period January 2017 to December 2019.
It will be recalled the ERC director MERALCO to refund over-recoveries in transmission and other charges over a period of three months and collect an under-recovery in the generation rate for about 24 months last December 29,2020.
The impact to residential customers from the months of January to April 2021, is a net refund of around P0.1150 per kWh.
The generation charge for April is P4.5370 per kWh which is P0.1621 higher than last month’s P4.3749 per kWh. Accordingly, WEST charges increase by P2.5991 per kWh due to tighter supply conditions in the Luzon grid. Peak demand in Luzon increased by almost 1,000 megawatts last month due to warmer temperature. Unavailable capacity from plant outages remained way about 3,400 Megawatts. WESM’s share is slightly down to 11% this month.
To address the impact of increase in WESM charges are lower the lower costs from Independent Power Producers (IPP) and Power Supply Agreements (PSAs). Charges from IPPs and PSAs decreased by P0.2090 and P0.1371 per kWh, respectively because of improved average plant dispatch and Peso appreciation. The shares of IPPs and PSAs this month were 39% and 50%, respectively.
MERALCO serves 7.1 million costumers from 36 cities and 75 towns including Metro Manila and the provinces of Rizal, Cavite and Bulacan and portions of Pampanga, Batangas, Laguna and Quezon. (Melo M. Acuña)
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