MERALCO CUSTOMERS TO EXPECT HIGHER ELECTRICITY RATES FOR JULY

Meralco sees a hike in electricity charges for the month of July (Photo courtesy of Daily Tribune)

Customers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) should expect a higher bill for the month of July according to Meralco Vice-President and Head of Utility Economics Lawrence S. Fernandez, as it will begin to collect the recent deferred charges of P0.77 per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

Increase in overall power rates for July is due to strong pressures on Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) that may trigger generation charges to go up, and still due to the recent series of power alerts caused by a shortage in supply with the collection of the staggered charges from the spot market.

“We may expect strong pressures for the generation charge to increase this July. To recall, the generation charge saw a reduction in June after ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission) directed the staggered collection of WESM charges over four months,” Fernandez said.

This June, Meralco customers saw a P1.9623 per kWh decrease in electricity rates, rather than a P0.6436 per kWh increase. It reduced the average household cost to P9.4516 per kWh, down from P11.4139 in May.

For residential users consuming 200 kWh, the adjustment resulted in a P392 reduction in their overall electricity payment.

Previously, the ERC ordered distribution utilities to stagger the collection of WESM purchase costs over a four-month period beginning in June and running through September.

Meralco, with Quezon Power (Philippines) Ltd. and San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co. and South Premiere Power Corp. withheld collecting P500 million in generation costs last month to reduce the impact of rising pass-through charges.

“Thus, from an artificially low level in June, we should expect WESM charges to normalize in the July generation charge. The latter would be affected by the series of Red Alerts experienced by the Luzon Grid at the start of the June supply month. However, their impact should be mitigated by the lower demand due to the onset of the rainy season,” he explained.

Source: Daily Tribune 

Be part of ImHenyo community!

Get featured by sharing your stories, news, and comments

Email us at [email protected]