The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) partially lifted the suspension on the settlement amounts in the reserve market allowing the power generators to recover P1.7 billion of their operating cost.

The partial lifting that will allow power generators to partially recover the costs for trading transactions for the March billing month of this year was ordered by the ERC on Wednesday.

The Commission resolved to allow settlement of 30 percent of the P5.7 billion total reserve trading amount for March billing month.

The ERC noted that "the decision was made in an effort to ensure continuous operations of power generators providing reserves in the system following the suspension order issued on 25 March 2024."

"In this instance, partial recovery of costs for services rendered will allow these generators to recover a portion of their operating costs to enable them to continue supplying in the energy or reserve market for the benefit of the public," it stated.

Early this month, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced the temporary suspension of the operation of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) to address the increasing price of electricity.

Following a significant reduction of almost one peso in the price of electricity in previous month, the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) announced on Tuesday an increase of P0.4621 per kWh in this month's electricity rate.

This will bring the overall rate for a typical household to P11.4139 per kWh from P10.9518 per kWh in April.

Meralco said for the residential customers consuming 200 kWh, the adjustment is equivalent to an increase of around P92 in their total electricity bill.

It noted that "driving this month’s overall rate increase was the generation charge which went up by P0.4455 per kWh primarily due to higher costs from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and Power Supply Agreements (PSAs)."

"Charges from WESM went up by P1.7913 per kWh due to the tight supply condition in the Luzon grid during the April supply month as demand went up by 2,401 MW," it stated. Robina Asido/DMS