Meralco increased rates in April despite low power costs

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines’ largest electric company increased its rates in April because “it was purchasing higher-priced electricity from its power plants,” a consumers group said.

As a result, customers of Meralco were charged “more than P0.50 centavos” during April, newly-formed EmPOWER Consumers said in a statement, citing data provided by the company.

According to the group, power sold and generated by the National Power Corp (Napocor) fell by as much as 50 centavos per kilowatt hour during the same month.

Besides its independent power producers (IPPs), Meralco also buys power from Napocor, the Philippines’ largest electricity supplier.

“Why were we billed P4.90/kWh by Meralco in April 2008 when there was this least cost of electricity supplied by NPC at P4.01/kwh? This is a clear violation of the least cost provision of Sec. 4 of RA 9209 and Sec. 23 of the EPIRA,” said Pete Ilagan, head of the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (NASECORE) another EmPOWER Consumers convenor.

For his part, Wilson Fortaleza, also a convenor of the group, said that “the increase in generation charge in April was largely due to the increase in the cost of IPPs contracted by Meralco.”

EmPOWER Consumers asked the Commission to investigate and to implement the law that ensures delivery of lower cost of electricity to the consumers.

“There seems to be a conscious attempt to mislead the public by making us believe that the major reason for the rate hike is the increase in its purchased power through the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM),” the group said in a statement. - GMANews.TV