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Unlike in October, where the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) gave a power rate cut to the consumers, the company announced that electric bills for this month would go up.

Meralco said the consumers should expect their electric bills to increase by 25 centavos per kilowatt-hour this month because of the hike in the cost of power supplied by power generation companies. This translates to an additional P25 in electric bills for November of households consuming 100 kWh of electricity a month. Those consuming up to 200 kWh can expect their bills to increase by P50.

Company vice president for utility economics, Ivanna dela Peña, said that the increase for November was actually 32.7 centavos per kWh, after generation charge rose to P4.2286 per kWh. She said, this increase was due to a number of factors, which include the lower volume of electricity supplied by the independent power producers (IPPs), following the reduced consumption during the October supply month (Sept. 26 to Oct. 25).

Dela Peña noted that decline was attributed to a series of typhoons that hit Manila and other parts of Luzon, which caused massive power outages. “Add to this the prolonged power outages in some portions of the Meralco franchise area resulting from the trouble in one of the transformers in the Dolores Substation of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines,” she said.

However, Dela Peña said that even with imposed higher power rates this month, the current generation charge still remains to be lower than levels during the previous months, which peaked at P5.02 per kWh in April. It is also the first time in six months that the generation charge has increased. “In fact, the rate this month is still lower that the P4.26 per kWh generation charge in June and July 2009,” Dela Peña stressed.

The generation charge may vary from month to month, depending on the cost of energy supplied by the power producers, explained Meralco external communications manager Joe Zaldarriaga.