Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) on Tuesday warned its customers to expect a rise in their June electricity bills owing to increased pass-through charges.
The private sector electric distribution utility firm’s warning follows the Energy Regulatory Commission’s nod to Meralco’s request to stagger the surge in generation fees for three months —June to August.
However, the ERC also instructed Meralco and other electric providers to await the official billing from the independent electricity market operator before finalizing statements regarding power procurement from the spot market.
In a statement, Meralco spokesperson Joe R. Zaldarriaga said these charges will consist of a rise in transmission costs and an increase in the feed-in tariff (FIT) allowance.
Considering the recent tight supply conditions observed in the Luzon grid, Meralco anticipates a corresponding uptick in the generation charge.
“To cushion the impact of the rate increase to our customers, Meralco initiated the coordination with its suppliers to defer a portion of their generation costs,” Zaldarriaga said.
As per ERC, the final billing is anticipated to be lower than the initial billing.
This adjustment would mirror the enforcement of administered pricing and secondary price cap in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) during the previous supply month.
“Meralco will comply with this directive and will wait for IEMOP’s adjusted billing before computing the final rates for June and issuing the bills to our customers,” Zaldarriaga said.
“With this, we also advise our customers to expect a slight delay in the delivery of their bills. We would like to give the assurance that these efforts are meant to mitigate the impact of the expected rate increase to all our customers,” he concluded. (TCSP)
