Philippines: Meralco proposes staggered payments for power rate hike

Philippines: Meralco proposes staggered payments for power rate hike

Power rates for March will increase by P0.9174 per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
Meralco has proposed a P0.30 per kWh increase in generation charge from
March to May.

This is to address the power rate increase due to the Malampaya shutdown.
The power distributor is seeking approval to defer payments to several power
suppliers in line with the generation charge recovery.

ALTERNATIVE FUELS DRIVE UP COSTS

Due to the maintenance of the Malampaya natural gas facility, Meralco said
other natural gas plants will be running on more expensive alternative
fuels.

This affects the gas supply for Luzon's major natural gas plants like the
Avion plants, Ilijan, San Gabriel, San Lorenzo and Sta. Rita plant. These
supply 3, 211 megawatts (MW) to the grid, 2,565 MW of which is supplied to
Meralco's franchise area, therefore affecting electricity prices.

Natural gas fuel typically costs around P4 per kWh. Replacement or
alternative fuel, such as diesel, will double the costs from P6 to P8 per
kWh.

The DOE earlier said that the Sta. Rita, San Lorenzo, Ilijan Unit 2, and
Avion plants will be running on alternative fuels in order to continue
generating electricity during Malampaya's maintenance period, which will run
until February 16.

"Our filing is to lessen the impact on consumers' bills, not a one time
hit," Meralco Senior Vice President and head of customer retail services and
corporate communications Alfredo Panlilio said.

The state-owned Malaya Thermal Power Plant (TPP) in Rizal, with a capacity
of 470 megawatts, started running when a unit of the Sual power station
tripped last week.

Unit 1 of Sem-Calaca Power Corp. and Quezon Power Philippines Ltd., with a
capacity of 585 MW, will go on a scheduled outage. To address the absence of
its output, Meralco said it will source power requirements from the spot
market.

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Link to Original Article:
http://powerphilippines.com/2017/02/10/meralco-proposes-staggered-payments-f
or-power-rate-hike/

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com