MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) said recent power interruptions experienced by its customers are mainly caused by overloaded equipment due to the high demand in energy from residential customers.
“The extremely hot weather which is registering, based on news reports, as high as 40 degrees celsius is causing a sharp rise and unusually high increase in consumption of our residential consumers many of whom are forced to stay home due to the ECQ (enhanced community quarantine),” Joe Zaldarriaga, the company’s spokesman said in a statement.
“At home, the behavior is more power consumption and usage by turning on household appliances especially cooling devices like aircon units and electric fans at almost the same time and at longer duration. This in turn is stretching our facilities to unprecedented levels sometimes resulting to what we term as localized outages. The restoration time for these interruptions usually lasts a longer duration of time because we need to replace the transformers and reinforce or if needed replace the secondary wires,” Zaldarriaga said.
Meralco said it is working 24/7 to facilitate needed restoration activities and explained that it has so far only affected 0.28 percent or less than one percent of its 6.93 million total customer base.
Meanwhile, Meralco said May power rates will go down by P0.2483 per kilowatt hour (kWh), attributed to lower generation charge as the company claimed force majeure on its power supply agreements (PSAs).
This is the second consecutive rate drop and will be equivalent to a decrease of around P50 in the bill of a residential customer consuming 200 kWh monthly. It brings overall power rates to P8.7468 per kWh compared to last month’s P8.9951 per kWh.
Likewise, from P4.6385 per kWh last April, generation charge decreased by P0.2537 per kWh to P4.3848 per kWh this May.
Because of the significant reduction in power demand in its service area during the ECQ, Meralco invoked the force majeure provision in its PSAs for the duration of the lockdown, reducing fixed charges for generation capacity that would have been charged by suppliers.
April’s generation charge reflected a P129 million reduction in fixed costs due to Meralco’s force majeure claim which totalled to P877 million this month, equivalent to savings of P0.3452 per kWh, representing reduction in fixed costs and avoided charges from the temporary suspension of mid-merit supply contracts.
PSA charges also decreased by P0.2116 per kWh as cost of power from independent power producers (IPPs) decreased by P0.6418 per kWh due to higher average plant dispatch, lower fuel prices and peso appreciation.
Meanwhile, charges from the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) increased by P1.8502 per kWh due to the included line rentals related to Meralco’s supply contracts.
There was no movement in the feed-in-tariff allowance (FIT All) for May as the Energy Regulatory Commission ordered another month of deferral in consideration of the current ECQ but transmission charge registered a slight increase this month by P0.0175 per kWh due to higher ancillary charges, while taxes and other charges registered a net decrease of P0.0121 per kWh.
Meralco’s interim distribution rates comprised of distribution, supply and metering charges, the only bill component paid to the company remained at P1.381 per kWh for 58 months already.
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.
WESM accounted for less than total power requirements for the month while IPPs and PSAs’ shares were at 46 percent and 52 percent, respectively.
