Customers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will have to pay more for their electricity in April as the cost of power generation continues to remain high.

Besides having to pay more for electricity, Meralco customers, as well as other power consumers in Luzon, had to endure for the third straight day rotating brownouts of three-hour durations on Thursday because of unreliable operations of a number of power plants.

During a media briefing on Thursday, Jose de Jesus, Meralco president, said that the generation charge component of consumers’ electricity bills will see a spike of P0.93 a kilowatt-hour in April at P6.77 a kilowatt-hour from last month’s P5.84 a kilowatt-hour.

“It’s the market situation, it’s the power situation. WESM [prices] have really gone up,” he added.

The WESM, or the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, is a trading platform for power generators and buyers of electricity. Meralco sources a portion of the electricity it distributes to customers from this market.

The increase in the cost of supply from the WESM, which averaged P11.36 a kilowatt-hour, was a result of shortage in electricity supply, as there were power several plants that were either out because of preventive or emergency maintenance, or with decreased generation capacity because of the prolonged dry spell.

In February, Meralco’s WESM purchases averaged a hefty P12.12 a kilowatt-hour also because of the same reasons. This would have triggered a P1.83 a kilowatt-hour hike in its March billing but the utility volunteered to stagger the increase to mitigate the impact on its customers.

Besides the WESM, Meralco’s other power supplier, state-owned National Power Corp. and private power generating companies, continued to charge hefty rates also because of higher fuel costs.

The cost of power from the suppliers is reflected in the generation charge item in Meralco’s electricity bills. The utility does not earn from this charge as it merely acts a collecting agent for its suppliers.

Highest charge
Ivanna de la Peña, Meralco vice president and utility economics head, said that this April’s generation charge is “the highest ever” recorded by the company.

For nine months (starting May 2009) and prior to the recent increases, the generation charge component of consumers’ electricity bills recorded successive downward adjustments.

Industry officials attributed this to low WESM prices then, at roughly less than half of current ones, because of the relatively cooler weather and government intervention in the electricity market.

“Conditions are very much different now from those prevailing for most of 2009 when the generation charge was on the decline,” de la Peña said.

The increase will redound to an additional charge of P186 for households consuming 200 kilowatt-hours a month and P372 for those using 400 kilowatt-hours a month. Lifeline Meralco customers, or those using less than 100 kilowatt-hours, will see an increase of P93, exclusive of subsidies and discounts given to such power users.

Extended brownouts
Meanwhile, the unreliable operations of a number of power plants resulted in rotating brownouts for power consumers in Luzon lasting three hours on Thursday.

“We have an average deficiency of 660 megawatts until 7 p.m. Thursday,” de Jesus said.

The extended brownouts were the result of technical, fuel and maintenance issues at the Sual and Pagbilao coal-fired plants, Santa Rita and Ilijan natural-gas plants and Malaya and Bauang diesel power plants. Compounding the problem were the limited capacities of hydroelectric power plants as a result of the dry spell.

Acting Energy Secretary Jose Ibazeta said that the brownouts would end Thursday evening once repair works on some of the power plants are completed.

“Starting tonight until April 15, if the operations of the power plants run smoothly, there will be sufficient supply of power,” Ibazeta added.

Because of the May 10 elections, maintenance of power plants was done earlier than usual.

But information on these maintenance works, which are managed by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, has been hard to come by.

“We are sometimes updated by [National Grid] within an hour before the load drops. We are having difficulty in informing our customers. Usually, for as long as customers know about it, they can prepare for it. It would be easier for us for as long as we know ahead [the schedule or load profile],” de Jesus said.

Officials of National Grid, who previously entertained queries from media, have been tight-lipped ever since the shake-up in its corporate ownership a month ago. The reshuffle saw the entry of SM group into the utility.

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