Meralco may hike rates in February
Credit to Author: JORDEENE B. LAGARE| Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2019 16:56:02 +0000
CONSUMERS may have to shell out more money for their power consumption in February as the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) on Wednesday hinted that electricity rates might go up next month.
In a text message, Meralco Vice President and Head of Utility Economics Lawrence Fernandez said prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market might increase.
“[W]e noticed this January that there were significantly more power plants on forced and scheduled outage. This means less supply and may be reflected as higher prices in the spot market,” Fernandez said.
In January, the power distributor reduced its rates by P0.3418 per kilowatt hour (kWh), bringing overall rates to P9.8385 per kWh from December’s P10.1803 per kWh.
Meralco has attributed the decrease in power rates to lower generation charge, as electricity cost from its power supply agreements dropped to P1.2293 per kWh.
However, rates are expected to normalize in February.
“Similar to past years, the capacity fees will normalize, which would be reflected in a February generation charge that will be higher than January’s,” Fernandez said.
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