Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Meralco hikes power rate
HIGHER prices traded at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) have driven up the distribution and generation charges imposed by Manila Electric Company (Meralco) for this month.
Meralco increased its rates by P0.8224 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in electricity billed to its customers for this month.
But if the increases in system loss and transmission charges will be added, the total adjustments in the April billing would reach P0.9753 per kWh based on actual billings sent to Meralco customers.
The generation charge of the utility firm went up by P0.5188 per kWh this month to P4.9073 per kWh from P4.3885 per kWh last month.
Likewise, Meralco’s distribution charge went up by P0.3036 per kWh to P0.8765 per kWh as against the P0.5729 per kWh last March.
Aside from distribution charge, the company’s transmission charge also went up to P0.9922 per kWh from last month’s P0.9163 per kWh.
The higher prices traded with WESM and the expensive procurement from the contracted independent power producers (IPPs) in particular the Quezon Power Plant is the reason for the implementation of rate increase.
Earlier, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) assured customers that there would be no increase in the electricity bills for the summer months after Meralco filed an application with the ERC for its distribution tariff adjustment through the performance-based regulation (PBR) scheme.
Records of the Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC) also indicated that WESM prices went up to P8.936 per kWh on its February 26 to March 25 billing to Meralco.
The rate was higher by P3.304 per kWh from the P5.632 per kWh based on PEMC’s final billing for the period covering January 26 to February 25.
PEMC’s monitoring also indicated the higher utilization of fuels which accounts for 52.9 percent during the month of March as against the 43.8 percent in February.
On the other hand, utilization of hydro plants remains stable at more than 11 percent, geothermal between 10 to 11 percent and coal by 21 percent last month. (MSN/Sunnex)
