Meralco says January electric bills to go down

Electric bills will go down this month with lower generation, transmission, and distribution charges, power distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said Wednesday. “We will be implementing changes in the generation, transmission, and distribution charges. For our consumers, this will mean a net reduction of around P0.27 per kWh [kilowatt hour] in their electric rates," Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said in a statement. Meralco said it will reduce P0.20 per kWh for the generation charge — or what Meralco pays its power suppliers such as National Power Corp. (Napocor), independent power producers (IPPs), and wholesale electricity spot market (WESM). Power from Napocor and IPPs dropped P0.30 and P0.24 per kWh, respectively, the power distributor said. “These more than offset higher rates from WESM," Meralco added. Meralco said it sources around 41 percent of its supply from Napocor, 35 percent from First Gas Power Corp., and 12 percent from Quezon Power Phils. Ltd., with the balance from the spot market. Meanwhile, Meralco said transmission charges passed on to consumers will drop P0.23 per kWh after its “underrecovered" collections are completed. These are costs that Meralco incurred and paid for in prior months but was only allowed to collect from consumers on a deferred basis, Zaldarriaga explained. Moreover, Meralco will implement this January the new distribution, supply, and metering charges that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) recently approved, the company said. The new charges represent rates for regulatory year 2011 ending in June, Meralco said. The ERC approved a maximum average price (MAP) of P1.65 per kWh for 2011 to spare consumers from price shocks. Meralco previously asked for a MAP of P2.65 per kWh. — JE/VS, GMANews.TV