Power rates in areas covered by the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) franchise are down this month after three consecutive months of increases.
Consumers, however, will have to brace for a significant hike in fuel prices starting tomorrow.
Meralco said the P0.3587 per kilowatt hour (kWh) decrease in power rates this October brings overall charges to P11.4295 from last month’s P11.7882 per kWh.
The company said in a statement last Friday the adjustment is equivalent to a reduction of P72 in the total bill of residential customers consuming 200 kWh monthly.
Meralco said this month’s overall rate adjustment was pulled down by the P0.3059 per kWh reduction in the generation charge due to lower costs from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
WESM charges decreased by P5.1001 per kWh following the completion last month of the collection of deferred May 2024 costs ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission.
Also contributing to the reduction was the improved supply situation in the Luzon grid as average demand and average capacity on outage went down by 544 megawatts (MW) and 519 MW, respectively.
Meralco said the power rate decrease could have been higher if not for the P1.8556 per kWh increase in charges from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and the P0.1128 per kWh uptick in charges from Power Supply Agreements (PSAs).
Transmission charge went down by P0.0383 per kWh due to lower ancillary service charges while taxes and other charges also decreased by P0.0145 per kWh.
Meralco’s distribution, supply and metering charges remains at P0.0360 per kWh.
The company said 50 percent of its requirements was from PSAs; 26 percent from IPPs and 24 percent from WESM.
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy said per liter fuel prices of gasoline and kerosene may increase by P2.40 to P2.60 while diesel will move up by P2.50 to P2.70.
Jetti said the increase is primarily driven by the significant spike in crude oil prices due to fear of supply disruption caused by Israel’s retaliation, targeting Iran’s oil infrastructure.
“There is also some tightening in the supply of diesel and gasoline in (the) region due to production cuts (caused by the) ongoing refinery maintenance and refinery run cuts and unplanned refinery outages in Indonesia and Malaysia. Overall, the increase is due to higher crude prices, which may stay elevated because of the Middle East tension,” Jetti said in a message to reporters over the weekend.
