Power rates in Metro Manila will be reduced for the fifth straight month this September on lower generation charge, Manila Electric Co. said.
Ivanna dela Pena, Meralco vice president and utility economics head, said Meralco customers would be given an 8.2-centavo per kiloWatthour rate reduction in the generation charge.
She said the generation charge would be slashed to P4.0166 per kWh September from P4.0986 in August.
The latest round of charge reduction would bring to P1 per kWh the total rollback in the last five months.
“Generation charge has been on a general downward trend for the past months and if we compare generation charge now from five months ago, it would register an accumulated P1 per kWh reduction,” she said.
The drop in the generation charge was attributed to the higher trading volume at the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM).
“The primary reason for the decrease in this month’s generation charge was the increased volume of power obtained from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in August,” dela Pena said.
Purchases from the WESM, at an effective rate of P2.4331 per kWh, increased to 15.8 percent in August compared to 8.8 percent in July.
Power sourced from the National Power Corp. (Napocor), on the other hand, decreased to 30.4 percent from 36.2 percent over the same period.
The decline in the generation charge alone will reduce the bills of residential customers consuming 100 kWh by P8, while this would double to P16 for those consuming 200 kWh..
Owing to the cumulative P1 per kWh reduction in the generation charge over the past five months, the September bill of Meralco residential customers is about 14 to 15 percent lower compared with their levels in April 2009. GMANews.TV
