POWER RATES DOWN BUT MAY GO UP AGAIN THIS SUMMER

Gonzales, I. (March 10)

MANILA, Philippines - There’s a slight reduction in electricity rates this month, but consumers should still brace for high electricity bills due to higher demand during the hot months and the month-long maintenance shutdown of the deepwater gas-to-power Malampaya natural gas field in offshore Palawan.

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the power distributor, yesterday announced a reduction in electricity rates by P0.095 per kilowatt-hour to P10.42 per kwh for March.

For a typical household consuming 200 kwh, this is equivalent to a decrease of around P19 in their electricity bill.

The decrease was driven by lower power cost during the February supply month, which translated to a lower generation charge of P5.209 per kwh in March from P5.238 per kwh previously.

“Generation charge, or the portion of the bill that goes to the generation companies or power producers, decreased by P0.029 per kwh from P5.238 to P5.209. This was driven by the 30-centavo reduction in the average rate of Meralco’s Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) for the February supply month owing to higher dispatch of the plants under the PSAs,” Meralco explained in an advisory.

Meralco said that the PSA’s share to Meralco’s total requirements went up to 54 percent from 49 percent previously.
But Meralco still purchased from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the country’s trading floor for electricity, which saw an average price increase of P1.14 per kwh, and from independent power producers (IPPs), which saw an increase of P0.18 per kwh.

“WESM’s share to Meralco’s total power requirements went up from 4 percent to 4.5 percent due to Quezon Power Philippines Ltd. (QPPL)’s maintenance outage. The share of IPPs, on the other hand, went down from 47 percent to 40.5 percent due mainly to the QPPL outage,” Meralco said.

But the transmission charge went down by P0.045 per kwh due to lower ancillary charges.

Other charges, including system loss charge and subsidies, registered a decrease of P0.010 per kwh, resulting in corresponding decreases in taxes such as value added tax and local franchise tax of P0.011 per kwh.

Meralco’s distribution charge, however, remained unchanged and had been at the same level since July 2014.

But the Malampaya natural gas field, which supplies power to three natural gas-fired power plants in Luzon, will go on maintenance shutdown from March 15 to April 13.

“As a result of the use of liquid fuel, rates are expected to increase in the billing months affected by the shutdown and the impact of higher energy demand during the summer months. This includes both April and May 2015,” Meralco said.

Power plants bogged down

Other power plants have also bogged down and are on forced outage or extended outage even as the critical supply period is fast approaching.

According to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, GN Power’s unit 1, with 302 megawatts and which has been unavailable since Oct. 26, 2014, will go on extended shutdown until March 19. Similarly, unit 2 (53 MW) of the Tiwi plant in Albay has been unavailable since March 8 due to valve trouble.

Energy Development Corp. yesterday disclosed that unit 3 of its Bacon-Manito geothermal plants, with a capacity of 20 MW, is also unavailable due to line tripping.

Several plants are also on scheduled outage. These are the unit 3 (90 MW) of the Magat plant, which is on planned shutdown until March 21; unit 1 (250 MW) of the Sta. Rita plant also on planned shutdown from March 7 to 11; and unit 2 (302 MW) of GN Power, which will be out until March 25 on maintenance shutdown.

The Limay plant in Bataan (60 MW) will be unavailable until March 12 as well as the Magat Plant (90 MW), which will be out until April 19. Two units of the Makban plants (63 MW and 17 MW) will also be out until March 31.

According to the Department of Energy (DOE), an average of 631 megawatts to as high as 858 MW are expected to disappear from the Luzon grid from March to June 2015 as a result of forced outages of power plants.

Specifically, an average of 631 MW in capacity would not be available in March as a result of forced outages, while an average of 712 MW would not be available in April. This is predicted to go down to an average of 642 MW in May and rise again to an average 858 MW in June.

Reference:
Gonzales, I. (March 10)http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2015/03/10/1431961/power-rates-down-may-go-again-summer