The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said a refund of at least 4 to 5 centavos per kilowatt hour (kWh) will be implemented for the March billing month.
Jose Ronald Valles, Meralco first vice president and regulatory management head, told reporters over the weekend the refund rooted from an Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) order reminding distribution utilities to validate generation charges before being passed on to consumers.
ERC earlier asked Meralco to complete the validation to justify the rate adjustment that it will be imposing this month.
Earlier this month, Meralco announced a P0.5738 per kWh increase in its overall power rates that is equivalent to an upward adjustment of around P115 in the total bill of residential customers consuming 200 kWh monthly.
The company said this month’s overall rate increase is mainly driven by the generation charge which went up by P0.4552 to P7.1020 per kWh, primarily due to higher cost of power from independent power producers and power supply agreements.
The ERC had said while Meralco admits that a validation of the impact of the use of liquefied natural gas and the new gas supply contracts is necessary in light of the terms of its power purchase agreements (PPAs), the company has yet to provide the results of such validation.
Monalisa Dimalanta, ERC chairperson, recently said any costs passed on to consumers must be in accordance with Meralco’s PPAs as approved by the ERC.
“In recent decisions issued by the ERC involving pass-through generation charges, the ERC reminds all distribution utilities that their duty does not end when electric power is supplied and the charges have been collected,” Dimalanta had said. – Jed Macapagal
