Did your Meralco bill increase?

May 3, 2010

Stocks, Mutual Funds, Forex, Finance Philippines

Make Money Online, Stocks, Mutual Funds, Philippines

Our electric bill tripled from P700 in March to P2,000 in April. Although there was a slight increase in usage from March to April, the increase should have not been that drastic.

Other PMT Forum members are also complaining of the unexpected rise in their Meralco bills.

brixxx214: Ang P1,800 ng monthly na bill ko ay umabot ng P3,000!!!
bizzy: Sa amin, P1,500 per month naging P3,100.. tsk tsk… kaiyak!
bizsum: From 12k went up to 15k. With the the sizzling heat, I expect a bigger bill next month.
bp22estafa: From 6,500 last Feb to 9,300 last March, then 12,800 for the latest billing.

So who’s to blame?

Mea culpa (not our fault), says Meralco. Blame it on the electricity suppliers. In a note attached to electric bills they recently sent to customers, Meralco explains:

Dear customer,

You may have noticed an increase in this month’s electric bill.

In recent months, there have been increases in the generation charge component of the electric bill. In April alone, the generation change went up by 0.93 centavos/kWh to P6.7699/kWh from P5.8417/kWh in March.

The rise in generation charges springs from the high cost of electricity that Meralco buys from its suppliers. These suppliers consist of the National Power Corporation (NCP), Independent Power Producers (IPP) and Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).

The major factor that caused the sharp rise in electricity was because of the increase in the price of WESM, a venue for trading electricity as a commodity in the spot market.

Meralco does not add any mark-up to the cost of electricity purchased from these electricity suppliers. The generation cost, which averages about 50-60% of your electric bill, goes directly to Meralco’s power suppliers and adds nothing to Meralco’s income.

If you will take a minute to examine your electric bill (found in the last column of you bill), you will note that what goes to Meralco is approximately 20-25% of your total bill. The rest go to the power suppliers for the cost of electricity, the NGCP for transmission charges, and to the Government in the form of taxes.

It may not be Meralco’s fault entirely, but they should at least lessen the burden of customers by finding ways to bring down the cost of electricity. It may be high time now, too, to look for alternative or renewable sources of energy.

How was your Meralco bill recently? How big was the increase?

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Written by James | PinoyMoneyTalk.com · Filed Under News & Current Events

Join the discussion! Post a comment below

moks

Meralco is not owned by the Lopez’s(they said that it’s not Meralco’s fault the price goes up) but hey WAKEUP PINOY!!! EDC is owned by Lopez’s which supplies electricity to Meralco…hahaha. Good thing I bought EDC shares 26% gain already and no plans of selling it yet.

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/190234/lopez-firm-edc-posts-p38b-in-1st-qtr-net-income

Lopez firm EDC posts P3.8B in 1st qtr net income

Lopez-owned Energy Development Corp. (EDC), a leading producer of geothermal energy, said its net income increased by 68 percent to P3.80 billion in the first three months of the year from P2.27 billion in the same period in 2009.

Its earnings before income tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) also improved by 82 percent to P4.94 billion.

EDC said improved revenues from its two subsidiaries – Green Core Geothermal Inc. (GCGI), operator of the 192.5-MW Palinpinon and the 112.5-MW Tongonan I geothermal power plants, and First Gen Hydro Power Corp. which operates the Pantabangan and Masiway hydroelectric plants, were the main drivers of the significant advances in net income and EBITDA in the first quarter, contributing P1.22 billion.

The company’s core net income also soared to P3.2 billion, up by 103 percent from P1.6 billion. The marked improvement was driven by higher electricity sales from GCGI geothermal and Pantabangan-Masiway hydroelectric plants.

“We’re off to a good start in 2010 given the performance of our subsidiary corporations. Knowing the pulse of our customers worked to our advantage. We are sensitive to their preference for clean, reliable, sustainable and affordable energy sources,” EDC president and COO Richard Tantoco said.

Tantoco said “the pricing of the indigenous renewable energy resource that we offer our customers is independent of any indexation to movements in global energy indices. This was validated by the long-term contracts that we have already secured for the Palinpinon and Tongonan geothermal power plants.”

This year, EDC is adding the 150-MW Bacon-Manito (BacMan) geothermal plant in Sorsogon to its portfolio of assets. It submitted the highest bid in the recently concluded auction for the government’s assets.

“We are programming the rehabilitation of the BacMan power plants and bringing them back to their full capacity within 18 to 24 months. With our acquisition of the BacMan plants, our steamfield and power plant operations will be fully integrated in all our project sites. This will make our operations more efficient and our electricity production competitively priced,’’ Tantoco said.—VS, GMANews.TV
http://jonhappiness.blogspot.com Jonha

Buti nalang PECO kami, thanks din pala kasi I’ve learned na maganda palang mag invest ng stocks sa EDC, haha. I always get to learn a lot from PMT, thanks!
.-= Jonha´s latest blog ..We Can Learn from the Birds =-.
http://www.dannybuntu.com dannybuntu

Hindi MERALCO – BATELEC-> 1,600 to 2,400.
.-= dannybuntu´s latest blog ..The New BPO Paradigm =-.
Jek

james,

your bill is just P700 previously? how did that happen? no appliances besides lights and your laptop?

sobrang baba ah!
Tin

I have this dorm and they said their Rate is General Power and now they are collecting monthly bill from us 6000k for a single room with AC…what the fvck! so above all the energy consumption, around P20.76 kwh is their charge! i want to know the rules regarding energy bills pls..