Tuesday, April 29, 2008 Meralco may impose another power rate hike
CONSUMER and Oil Price Watch (COPW) on Monday warned consumers of another price increase in the electricity rate of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) next month.
Raul Concepcion, chairman of COPW, said consumers would suffer again the burden of paying high electricity bills in June as Meralco completes the repayment of the net settlement surplus (NSS) of P0.1614 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) as ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
But Concepcion stressed that the refund will not ease the impact of the P0.1622 per kWh increase in the generation rates of Meralco which was approved by the ERC and took effect last February allowing the distribution utilities to recover for two years the total amount of P8.8 billion.
"After May, then Meralco will start to reflect the P0.1622 per kwh which means higher electricity rates for consumers. But before that happens, they should inform the public about it," he said.
The ERC has ordered Meralco to refund its consumers the P0.1614 per kwh from the NSS or the settlement surplus remaining after all market transactions have been accounted for.
The refund covers a period of three to four months, which started in February and will end by May.
During the briefing, Concepcion called for transparency both with Meralco and the National Power Corporation as well as the independent power producers (IPPs) where he demanded that all power cost should be posted on website of all the involved power producers and distributors.
He also said he will meet with the Department of Energy (DOE) and the ERC to resolve issue of the announced increase of P0.125 covering under recovery for generation cost and cross subsidy for the month of April covering the billing period of March 26 to April 25.
"COPW will request a weekly and monthly coordination meeting between the government and sectors concerned to help ease the burden on the consumer by forewarning them of power adjustment by the distribution utilities covering the life line rates and inter-class subsidy as soon as generation companies submit their bills to the distribution utilities," he added.
In its April billing period, Meralco's rates went up by P0.6717 per kWh, or an addition of 8.95-percent which is translated to P149 increase for consumers using 200 kilowatts of electricity per month.
Meralco blamed higher prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and higher cost of procurement from its contracted IPPs, primarily the Quezon Power Plant which conducted a maintenance shutdown last March. (MSN/Sunnex)
