Meralco: Expect an increase in your Aug electric bill

A few days ago, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) was hoping for generation charges to go down. They didn't get what they wished for as the power distributor on Friday advised its Metro Manila customers to expect their August electric bills to go up. Meralco explained that they experienced higher generation rate of P0.44 per kilowatt hour (kWh) hour in July. The generation rate increase in July will be reflected on the consumers' August bills. Meralco, the country's biggest power distributor, reported that its July's generation rate went up to P6.0962 per kWh from P5.6546 a month earlier. This is due to high prices at the wholesale electricity spot market of as much as P11 per kWh. Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras told reporters on Friday that he already asked the Philippine Electricity Market Corp., operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), to explain why the generation rate went up in July. "They shouldn't just explain. They have to show me the numbers," Almendras said. WESM prices increased by P3.08 per kWh last month to almost P11 per kWh from P7.90 per kWh in June. According to Meralco, the effect of this increase in generation rate is as follows: customers with a monthly consumption of 200 kWh will experience an increase of P88 in their August bill. Lifeline residential customers, or those consuming 100 kWh or less, will have lesser increase at an average of P0.22 per kWh. Meralco said July's generation rate is the second highest for the year. The highest generation charge recorded reached P6.77 per kWh in April. Meralco said that of the P3.08 per kWh increase, about P1.46 per kWh was due to higher market clearing prices, P0.85 per kwh was due to increase in line rental cost, and the remaining P0.77 per kwh was due to various adjustments pertaining to June 2010's WESM supply. —JE/OMG, GMANews.TV