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By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo Reporter
Electricity consumers in the
capital region are going to get a break from the Manila Electric
Company (Meralco), which announced a rollback of rates by about 50
cents per kilowatt-hour in June.
The utility added it is willing
to refund meter deposits soon but did not give a specific date.
In a press conference Wednesday,
Meralco executives said residential customers will enjoy a P0.4872
per kilowatt-hour reduction in their electricity bills this month
because of lower generation and system loss charges.
Elpi Cuna, Meralco vice president
for corporate communications, said the reduction is in lieu of a
significant drop in prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market
(WESM), where the utility sources a portion of the electricity it
distributes in its franchise area.
From its May level of P4.8754 per
kilowatt-hour, the generation charge—or the cost of power Meralco
buys from its suppliers that is passed on to consumers—this month
decreased to P4.4520 per kilowatt-hour.
“There was an almost P5 per
kilowatt-hour reduction in the basic cost of power, from P7.86 per
kilowatt-hour in April to only P2.93 per kilowatt-hour in May.
Factoring in all the adjustments, the net cost of WESM supply
further went down to P1.81 per kilowatt-hour in May from P7.34 per
kilowatt-hour in April, for a reduction of P5.53 per
kilowatt-hour,” Cuna said.
Company officials said the drop
in the price of electricity in the spot market was brought about by
low demand because of the cooler temperature, which led to less use
of air-conditioning units and electric fans.
Mandated under the Electric Power
Industry Reform Act of 2001, the spot market serves as a venue where
power producers compete against each other, offering their excess
capacities to bulk power users such as utilities, like Meralco, and
large companies.
Meralco sources bulk of its power
supply from its contracted independent power producers and
state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor).
Besides the lower generation
charges, the company’s system loss charges also went down for all
customer classes.
“Residential customers will
experience an additional reduction of P0.0638 per kilowatt-hour in
their bills as a result of lower system loss charges,” Cuna said.
These charges in electricity
bills are losses allowed by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC)
to be passed on to consumers if they are within the prescribed cap
of about 9.5 percent for private utilities like Meralco. The company
is to absorb losses in excess of the cap.
In line with the reduction in
Meralco’s electricity rates, lifeline customers—or those
enjoying discounts because of minimal consumption—consuming 50
kilowatt-hours will see a P13.23 reduction in their electric bills
this June. In April 2008, there were close to 700,000 customers
consuming 50 kilowatt-hours or less.
Those consuming 100
kilowatt-hours who are still in the lifeline category will be billed
P42.92 less this June, a 6-percent reduction from the May billing.
There were 1.6 million residential customers in the lifeline
category in April 2008.
A typical Meralco residential
customer consuming 200 kilowatt-hours will pay P114.41 less this
June, and his bill will be less by P0.5721 per kilowatt-hour.
Meter deposits
In the same press conference, the
Meralco officials welcomed the decision of the Energy Regulatory
Commission (ERC) ordering utilities to refund meter deposits to
consumers.
“With the final guidelines that
the ERC has set in so far as the mechanics are concerned, Meralco
will gladly abide by the decision of the regulator and comply with
the schedule set forth in the guidelines,” said Jobert Almazora,
first vice president for customer retail services.
Meralco can start refunding its
customers by November after the company irons out kinks in the
amount to be refunded and how it is to be disbursed, he added.
“The ERC has given private
utilities six months. We intend to use this time to take account of
all computations.”
Consumers who have paid meter
deposits may ask for a cash or check refund or for credit to future
billings or standing arrears.
Based on initial computations,
meter deposits collected by Meralco from 1985 to the time it stopped
doing so in 2004, total P2.8 billion, including interests.
Francis Saturnino Juan, the
commission’s executive director, said in a separate press
conference that unclaimed meter deposits will be forfeited in favor
of the government.
“We will ask from the Office of
the Solicitor General to start the exit proceeding in order to
forfeit the unclaimed deposits to the state,” he said.
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