Visayas, Mindanao quakes drive higher November power rates

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

Electricity consumers in Iloilo City will see higher power bills this November as MORE Electric and Power Corp. announced a residential rate of PHP 11.8558 per kWh, an increase of PHP 0.7687 per kWh from October.

The rate hike is primarily due to a constrained power supply caused by outages at several power plants in Cebu and Mindanao in September, compounded by a magnitude 6.9 earthquake that prompted the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines to place the Visayas grid on yellow alert for several hours.

MORE Power said the Panay Energy Development Corp. also experienced outages toward the end of October, further tightening supply conditions and contributing to surging market prices.

The average Wholesale Electricity Spot Market price in MORE Power’s franchise area rose to PHP 5.78 per kWh in October, an increase of PHP 1.83 from the previous month.

Peak demand in October reached 135.4 megawatts, according to the utility.

The rate hike also reflects adjustments in the Feed-In Tariff Allowance and the Universal Charge for the Environmental Charge, as mandated by the Energy Regulatory Commission.

“MORE is consistently working to mitigate the effects of price volatility in the market, given that external factors like earthquakes and natural disasters can affect the system of the power generation plants which could lead to major outages,” MORE Power Energy Sourcing Manager Raphael Dorilag said.

“One key approach to enhance stability is to firm up our long-term and locally sourced supply—especially within the Visayas region,” he added.

The system loss rate increased to PHP 0.4512 per kWh from PHP 0.4210 last month, driven by higher generation costs.

Despite the monthly uptick, the 12-month average system loss slightly decreased from 5.72 percent to 5.64 percent.

Transmission charges declined to PHP 1.8612 per kWh from PHP 2.1478 in October, following a PHP 0.2866 per kWh drop due to lower ancillary services costs in the reserve market.

The reduced ancillary services rates stemmed from decreased scheduled capacity from energy storage systems and diesel plants under the Ancillary Services Procurement Agreement.

Distribution fees charged by MORE Power remained unchanged for the November billing cycle.