CUSTOMERS of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will pay an additional 53.63 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kWh) this month—the biggest increase so far this year—as a result of the higher cost of electricity the distributor buys from its suppliers.
This will translate to an increase of P102 in the total bill of a household consuming 200 kWh a month.
Since January, Meralco rates have gone up by 59.88 centavos per kWh. Meralco rates went down by 7.46 centavos per kWh in January and by another 12 centavos in February before increasing by 6.25 centavos in March.
At a briefing on Monday, Joe Zaldarriaga, vice president for communications of Meralco, said the increase was driven by higher charges from Meralco’s two power sources—independent power producers (IPPs) and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
For this month, the generation charge went up by 39.87 centavos to P5.8724 per kWh from the previous month’s P5.4737.
Charges from IPPs, which are private companies that generate electricity for sale to the national electricity network, rose by P1.4885 per kWh due to the tighter supply caused by the scheduled maintenance of the Quezon Power Plant that lasted until March 24.
The depreciation of the peso against the US dollar also contributed to the increase in IPP charges since 97 percent of these costs are dollar-denominated.
WESM prices also remained high in March due to tight supply conditions in the Luzon grid.
This tight supply was also the reason why Meralco had to buy additional supply from WESM, which is the marketplace tapped by utility providers that need to augment their primary source of electricity. (©Philippine Daily Inquirer 2022/Karl R. Ocampo)
