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Philippines: Meralco announces power rate cut in February
MANILA, Philippines — Manila Electric Co. announced a rate cut for the February power bill, but a scheduled shutdown in a Malampaya natural gas facility could push up energy prices again.
In a statement on Friday, the Pangilinan-led power distributor said it cut its overall rate by P0.0106 per kWh in February. The cut is equivalent to a P2 reduction in the bills of residential customers that consume 200 per kilowatt-hour per month.
Meralco attributed the adjustment to lower generation charges, which “more than offset” the impact of the completion of a distribution-related refund to customer bills. There’s still one remaining mandated refund — equivalent to P0.8656 per kWh for residential customers — which will be completed in May 2023.
“The reduction in the generation charge balanced the impact of the completion of the third of four distribution-related refunds, equivalent to P0.1923 per kWh for residential customers and is no longer reflected in the customers’ electric bills starting February,” the company said in a statement.
The country’s largest power distributor explained that generation charges slid down to P6.9154 per kWh on account of lower costs from the spot market and independent power producers.
Power supply agreements, which account for 47% of Meralco’s energy needs, upped its charges to P0.7970 per kWh. Meralco explained that this was “due to lower average plant dispatch,” after the company’s PSA with San Miguel Corp.’s South Premiere Power Corp. was suspended.
Transmission charge and taxes inched up P0.0108 per kWh.
This development came as Filipinos continued to struggle with expensive commodity prices, as resurgent consumer spending exacerbated supply chain woes within the domestic economy.
That said, Meralco explained that while the impact of the scheduled maintenance on the Malampaya natural gas facility “remains to be seen,” power costs will indeed increase.
“The shutdown will run for a few days. Plants that use natural gas will turn to more expensive liquid fuel. So you factor that cost in,” Joe Zaldarriaga, company spokesman, told journalists in an online briefing.
Source: https://www.philstar.com/business/2023/02/10/2243998/meralco-announces-power-rate-cut-february