Meralco says February power bills down

February 15 ------ For the second month in a row, the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) announced today a downward adjustment of power rates, as the overall rate for a typical household consuming 200 kilowatt hours (kWh) decreased to its lowest level in two years of P8.8623 per kWh this February from last month’s P9.4523 per kWh. The reduction is mainly due to a lower generation charge after the implementation of new Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) starting last Dec. 26.

These PSAs were secured after a successful competitive selection process (CSP) under the guidance of the Department of Energy (DOE) and the expeditious provisional approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC). The overall rate reduction of P0.5900 per kWh will mean a decrease of around P118 in the typical household’s total electricity bill for February. The back-to-back months of rate decrease to start the year total P1.00 per kWh and goes against the usual trend of February rates adjusting upward due to price normalization after reconciliation of outage allowances, as seen in the previous five years.

Meralco CSP strategy contributes to lower generation charge

From P4.9039 per kWh last month, the generation charge for February decreased to P4.5090 per kWh, a reduction of P0.3949 per kWh. The new baseload PSAs—with San Miguel Energy Corporation, South Premiere Power Corporation, and AC Energy—registered a significantly lower generation cost of P4.0372 per kWh average and contributed 21 percent to Meralco’s supply requirements.

Meanwhile, charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) also decreased this month, driven by lower power demand and improved supply conditions in the Luzon grid. The WESM rate for February is P3.0529 per kWh. The share of WESM to Meralco’s supply needs increased to 23 percent. These offset the cost of power from Meralco’s Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and old PSAs, which increased by P0.7429 per kWh to P5.2920 per kWh, mainly due to lower average plant dispatch resulting from the scheduled outage of Quezon Power and First NatGas-San Gabriel from Jan. 17 to 25 and Jan. 4 to 23, respectively. The IPPs and old PSAs accounted for 56 percent of total supply.

Source: mb.com.ph