Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said March power rates will slightly go up, by P0.0278 per kilowatt hour (kWh), attributed to higher charges from the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM).
The increase is, however, cushioned by a refund ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
The upward rate adjustment follows two consecutive rollbacks and will be equivalent to an increase of around P6 in the bill of a residential customer consuming 200 kWh monthly. It brings overall power rates to P8.8901 per kWh compared to last month’s P8.8623 per kWh.
Meralco said March rates reflect the ERC-approved adjustments for over/under-recoveries in pass-through charges for the period January 2012 to October 2013 that will be implemented for a period of three months. These translate to a net reduction of P0.05 per kWh, excluding taxes.
The ERC has directed Meralco and other distribution utilities (DUs) to implement a one-time P0.1453 per kWh rate reversal in Universal Charge-Stranded Contract Costs representing collections in excess of the amount due to Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.
The company said from P4.5090 per kWh last month, generation charge for March increased to P4.6632 per kWh.
Charges from the WESM increased by P1.0479 per kWh due to higher power demand and tighter supply conditions in the Luzon grid as average capacity on outage increased in February with the scheduled maintenance of some power plants.
Cost of power from independent power producers (IPPs) and power supply agreements (PSAs) decreased by P0.0323 per kWh and P0.2950 per kWh respectively.
Transmission charge, taxes and other charges registered a decrease of P0.1264 per kWh.
Meralco’s interim distribution rates comprised of distribution, supply and metering charges, the only bill component paid to the company have remained at P1.381 per kWh the past 56 months.
Payment for the generation charge goes to the power suppliers, while payment for the transmission charge goes to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines while taxes and other public policy charges like the FIT-All are collected by government.
The company said total power requirements for the month were accounted to 17 percent from WESM while the remaining 83 percent are from IPPs and PSAs.
The ERC has ordered all DUs to refund to their respective consumers the over-recoveries in pass-through charges comprised of the generation rate, transmission rate, system loss rate, lifeline subsidy rate and senior citizens subsidy rate.
Based on ERC’s initial evaluation, the DUs’ total over-recoveries ranges from as high as P657.58 million to as low as P107,000 covering varying time periods.
“The commission ordered to refund the total amount of P2.8 billion to the concerned 63 DUs, particularly 38 in Luzon, 13 in Visayas and 12 in Mindanao. The refund should be implemented for a period of 12 months, except for Meralco and Angeles Electric Corp.
which prayed for a shorter period of refund, starting on the next billing cycle from receipt of the ERC’s order or until such time that the full amount shall have been refunded,” Agnes Devanadera, ERC’s chairperson and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
