The Meralco said lower February rate comes as generation charges for the month fell by P0.2305/kWh to P5.1957/kWh from P5.4262 last month
THE Manila Electric Company (Meralco) assured its consumers to expect lower bills this month as the power distributor reduced household electricity rates anew for February.
Meralco announced a reduction of P0.1185 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), bringing the overall rate for February to P9.5842/kWh from January’s P9.7027/kWh.
The downward adjustment translates to a P24 reduction in the monthly bill of residential customers consuming 200 kWh.
The lower February rate comes as generation charges for the month fell by P0.2305/kWh to P5.1957/kWh from P5.4262 last month, due to lower charges from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), which more than offset an increase in the rate from Power Supply Agreements (PSAs).
Meralco said charges from IPPs went down by P0.3395 per kWh due to higher plant dispatch of Quezon Power and First Gas – Sta. Rita.
Quezon Power resumed normal operations in the January supply month after experiencing some outages and deration in December, while First Gas – Sta. Rita’s output increased following the completion of the scheduled maintenance outage of Module 10 in December, it said.
The IPP charges also reflected a reimbursement from Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. (SPEX) to First Gas covering a portion of incremental fuel cost incurred in relation to the use of liquid fuel during unplanned Malampaya gas supply restrictions, the power distributor said.
“These were able to more than offset the increase in Malampaya natural gas prices resulting from its quarterly repricing, and an increase in coal prices,” Meralco said.
Despite lower demand because of cooler weather, Meralco said the Luzon grid was placed on Yellow Alert on January 10 and 11 due to forced plant outages.
The tight supply condition led to sustained high WESM prices, which triggered the imposition of the secondary price cap 28.37% of the time.
