Meralco customers to enjoy lower rates for 5 month

MANILA, Philippines – For five straight months, customers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will be paying less for their electricity bills, a company official said yesterday.

Meralco vice president and utility economics head Ivanna dela Peña said the company has implemented another reduction in its power rates.

Dela Peña said Meralco customers will enjoy an 8.2-centavo per kilowatthour rate reduction in the generation charge. From P4.0986 in August, the rate will go down to P4.0166 per kwh this September.

She said the latest rate cut would result in a total of P1 per kwh reduction for five months.

“The generation charge has been on a general downward trend for the past months and if we compare generation charge now from five months ago, it would register an accumulated P1 per kwh reduction,” she pointed out.

Dela Peña attributed the drop in generation charge to higher trading volume at the country’s electricity spot market.

“The primary reason for the decrease in this month’s generation charge was the increased volume of power obtained from the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) in August,” she said.

Purchases from the WESM, at an effective rate of P2.4331 per kwh, increased to 15.8 percent in August from 8.8 percent in July.

Power sourced from the National Power Corp. (Napocor), on the other hand, decreased to 30.4 percent from 36.2 percent over the same period.

The dispatch of the three major power plants, which supplied 53.7 percent of Meralco’s requirements in August, remained high at over 80 percent.

The decline in the generation charge alone will reduce the bills of residential customers consuming 100 kwh by P8 per month. The reduction, the Meralco official said, would be double at P16 for those consuming 200 kwh.

With the cumulative P1 per kwh reduction in the generation charge over the past five months, the September 2009 bills of Meralco residential customers are roughly 14 to 15 percent lower compared to their levels in April 2009.

Meralco has always maintained in previous statements that it consistently looks for the supply mix that would yield the most reasonable rates to customers.

The company has also consistently stated that it does not earn from the generation charge since it is merely a pass-through charge. –Donnabelle L. Gatdula (The Philippine Star)