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MANILA, Philippines - Meralco rates will go down this month following a reduction in its power supply cost.
Manila Electric Co. on Tuesday said the actual generation charge went down by P0.06 per kilowatt-hour.
Absent the recent increase in state-owned National Power Corp.'s (Napocor) generation charge, the Meralco reduction would have been higher.
Regulators earlier allowed Napocor to increase its rates for Luzon customers by P0.69 per kilowatt-hour this month under the generation rate-adjustment mechanism (GRAM) and incremental currency exchange rate adjustment (ICERA).
This Napocor increase was, however, tempered by downward adjustments in the charges of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and the independent power producers (IPPs).
Meralco said that WESM prices were moderated by the increased output of coal-fired power plants and continued support from power imported from the Visayas grid.
Charges from WESM, which contributed 4.3 percent to Meralco's power requirements, went down by P0.94 per kilowatt-hour compared with the previous month.
At the same time, rates of IPPs to Meralco went down by P0.21 per kilowatt-hour.
This was mainly due to the improved utilization of Quezon Power, whose dispatch went up from 47 percent to 71 percent.
IPPs comprised 42.7 percent of Meralco's power requirements for the supply month of April, while Napocor accounted for 52.8 percent.
The cost of power sold by the generating companies can fluctuate monthly based on several external factors such as fuel prices and the foreign exchange rate.
As part of its sourcing strategy, Meralco said it buys power from different sources to obtain adequate and reliable supply at the most reasonable price.
The generation charge, which accounts for about 56 percent of the total bill, accrues to these different generating companies and the WESM.
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