MANILA, Philippines -- Manila Electric Company (Meralco) customers will have higher electricity rates effective this month as the company's generation charge increased by P0.2013 per kilowatt hour (kWh) to P5.0474 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from last billing month's P4.8461 per kWh.
Yet, on a year-on-year basis, Meralco said the generation charge this month is lower by roughly P1.72 per kWh as compared to April, 2010 billing at P6.7699 per kWh - the time when Luzon grid was also suffering from irritating power outages.
The company appealed for more prudent consumption of electricity during these months when power bills would generally increase.
"Power consumption tends to shoot up during the summer months. Appliances work doubly hard in warm weather conditions in addition to more members of the household using electricity during the summer vacation break," it said, advising its customers "to observe energy efficiency tips during this time of the year."
Meralco, in a press statement, attributed this month's generation charge adjustment to the "increase in charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), mainly due to adjustments that pertained to costs from May, 2010 that were billed only this month."
The utility firm said though that it only purchased 2.5-percent of its requirement from the electricity spot market; thus, it was able to shield its customers partly on what could have been more expensive pass-on generation rates.
Nevertheless, it emphasized that "significant increase in WESM charges more than offset the P0.024 per kWh decrease in the rates of the independent power producers (IPPs) over the same period."
Generation charge is considerably revenue-neutral for Meralco. In the electricity business set-up, it collects the payments of its supplied power and remits it to power generators and sellers for the volumes it procured that were subsequently delivered to its customers.
Meanwhile, local oil firms yesterday jacked up pump prices for gasoline, which brought even the cheaper versions of the commodity nearer to the P60-per-liter mark.
Toby Nebrida, spokesperson of Chevron Philippines (formerly Caltex), said in a text advisory to Manila Bulletin past 11 p.m. Monday that the major oil company would add P0.25 a liter to prices of Gold, Gold E10, Silver, Silver E10, and regular.
The adjustment, which is value-added tax (VAT)-inclusive, took effect at 6 a.m. Tuesday, Nebrida said.
Pilipinas Shell, another major oil firm, also raised gasoline prices by P0.25 a liter at around the same time, spokesperson Bobby Kanapi said in his own text advisory early Tuesday. The hike covered prices of Shell's V-Power, premium, unleaded gasoline and regular unleaded.
Small oil player Eastern Petroleum said yesterday afternoon that they would copy the gasoline price hike although it did not say exactly when the adjustment would be enforced. Other oil companies were yet to announce an adjustment as of press time. (With a report from Ellson A. Quismorio)
