Higher spot market prices pushed up Manila Electric Company’s (Meralco) rates in July – the fourth straight month that rates are up.

In a statement on Friday, July 9, Meralco announced an upward adjustment in rates by P0.2353 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to P8.9071 per kWh.

This is equivalent to increases for households consuming the following, for example:

• P47.06 for 200 kWh
• P70.59 for 300 kWh
• P94.12 for 400 kWh
• P117.65 for 500 kWh

The overall rate in July still includes the distribution rate true-up refund worth P0.2761 per kWh, which tempered the increase in charges.

Tight supply conditions in the Luzon grid brought generation charges up by P0.2536 to P4.8707 per kWh. Charges at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) remained high at P8.7424, aggravated by the supply restriction at the Malampaya gas field and forced plant outages.

Charges from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) increased by P0.1929 per kWh, due to the Malampaya gas restriction, as gas-fire power plants have to use the more expensive liquid fuel. Meralco also said that IPP charges also increased due to peso depreciation.

Charges for Power Supply Agreements were down by P0.0521 per kWh.

The share of WESM in Meralco’s energy requirement for the July bill was up to 7.8%, while PSAs and IPPs provided 39.5% and 52.7%, respectively.

On other charges, the transmission charge decreased by P0.1463 per kWh, while the collection of the environmental charge amounting to P0.0025 per kWh remained suspended as ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission. – Rappler.com