Increase in Meralco Bills for Metro Manila Residents in January

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) released a statement regarding the increase in the overall rate due to a rise in the generation charge and the completion of refunds.

Meralco mentioned that the overall rate for an average household went up to ₱10.9001 per kWh in January from a previous ₱10.2769 kWh in December which signifies a ₱0.6232 per kWh increase.

The rate hike in January was linked to the generation charge that increased to ₱7.1291 per kWh from a previous ₱6.7975 per kWh back in December.

Meralco Spokesperson and Head of Corporate Communications, Joe R. Zaldarriaga has mentioned that the charges from the independent power producers (IPPs) also experienced a hike of ₱0.4070 per kWh as First Gas-Sta. Rita utilized a more costly fuel alternative because of the lack of supply from the Malampaya natural gas.

Last December, the Luzon grid was given a yellow alert due to the thin power supply after various power plants dealt with forced outages.

Also last December, Meralco increased its energy supply from Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) from 7% to 9% after the power supply agreement (PSA) of South Premiere Power Corp. (SPPC) was withdrawn beginning December 7.

The agreement of SPPC with Meralco covered over 670 megawatts (MW) of capacity spanning over 10 years in 2019 at ₱4.2455 per kWh.

In November, the Court of Appeals (CA) issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) that suspended the implementation of SPPC’s PSA with Meralco.

“Due to the cessation or suspension of SPPC PSA, we had to procure power in the spot market and enter into emergency PSA but hopefully the situation will be much better,” mentioned Zaldarriaga.

Source: Business World