Check your MERALCO'S June and July Bills

From Pete Ilagan (via HTL):

“Before you go over these figures, please get your Meralco bill last June and July 2007. Just go to the first and third charges, generation and system loss, and let the figures speak for themselves. The Inquirer’s banner story last Sunday was captioned Meralco cuts rates by P0.43/kWh. Here are the facts cited therein: 1. generation charge will go down by P0.3786/kWh; 2. system loss charge will decline by P0.0508/kWh; 3. the July generation charge was P5.67/kWh; 4. the July System Loss Charge was P0.90/kWh; 5. the August generation charge will be down to P5.2978/kwh; 6. the August System Loss Charge will be down P0.8479/kWh; 7. Napocor rate fell by P0.45/kWh so its average rate is now P5.19/kWh, meaning it used to be P5.64/kWh; 8. Meralco’s IPP rates also went down by P0.31/kWh so its down to P4.03/kWh, meaning it used to be P4.34/kWh.

Our comments (pls. check the figures in your June and July billings): 1. The story failed to cite that the June generation rate was P4.42/kWh (pls. check your June billing) so the July rate of P5.67/kWh applied an INCREASE of P1.25/kWh. So, even if Meralco cuts down by P0.37/kWh here (P1.25 - 0.3786 = P0.8714/kWh), it will still enjoy an INCREASE of P0.8714/kWh IN THE GENERATION CHARGE in its August billing based on its June rate of P4.42/kWh; ERC gave Meralco a provisional increase of P0.26/kWh in the previous months so it is still (P0.8714 less P0.2692 = P0.60/kWh) P0.60/kWh higher. 2. The story also failed to cite the June system loss charge of P0.72/kWh (pls. check your June and July billings) so the July rate of P0.90/kWh (P0.72 + 0.18) applied an increase of P0.18/kWh. So, even if Meralco cuts down its system loss charge by P0.0508/kWh, it will still enjoy a P0.12/kwh INCREASE in the system loss charge in its August billing. The provisional increase in the system loss charge in the previous months was only P0.07/kWh. 3. Prior to the commercial operation of the wholesale electricity spot market in July 2006, the GENERATION CHARGE that appeared in our Meralco July billing was P5.21/kWh. The ERC-approved Napocor RATE rate then was P4.93/kwh. This only shows that Meralco IPP rates were higher than P5.21/kWh. 4. Using their own announced figures, let’s ADD the Napocor’s rate of P5.19/kWh and Meralco IPPs’ rate of P4.03/kWh and we will arrive at an average rate of P4.61/kWh. This should be then the GENERATION RATE Meralco should be charging us for August AND NOT the P5.27/kWh it announced. The rate given them by ERC prior to the restoration of the automatic recovery adjustment. ERC’s provisional approval on GENERATION adjustment recovery (power purchased) was P0.2692. Add this to the basic charge of P4.4296, we were charged then P4.69/kWh.

Now that we have allowed Meralco’s announced figures and the figures from our Meralco June and July 2007 bills to speak for themselves, let’s ask ourselves if this Meralco announced rate reduction is something to rejoice about? Let’s pray that Meralco may learn to put off falsehood so it may learn to tell the truth. Please forward this to your friends so the truth may come out. — Pete”