Power rates in Metro Manila may again go up this month mainly due to higher costs in the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM), among other factors.
Lawrence Fernandez, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) vice president and head of utility economics department, said while improvements in foreign exchange rates will help manage dollar-denominated portions of generators’ charges, other factors can put upward pressure on rates.
Fernandez said WESM prices remained elevated last December as reductions in peak and average demand were more than offset by the increase in capacity on outage, apart from several instances of yellow alerts and the imposition of secondary price caps.
Fernandez added some of the refunds being implemented were completed last month and will no longer appear in this month’s bills.
In December, Meralco raised rates for the second consecutive month , equivalent to P0.3297 per kilowatt hour (kWh) that brought overall power rates to P10.2769, or an increase of around P66 in the total bill of residential customers consuming 200 kWh monthly.
The company’s two remaining refunds are set to be completed this month and the other by May. – Jed Macapagal
