By Alena Mae S. Flores

Manila Electric Co. consumers will pay P0.10 more per kilowatt-hour next month as a result of the recent decision of the Energy Regulatory Commission to raise National Power Corp.?s deferred charges for foreign exchange and fuel cost.

The commission said the net effect of its ruling on Napocor?s deferred accounting adjustment charges under the generation rate adjustment mechanism and incremental cost on foreign exchange rate adjustment for the Luzon grid was P0.1978 per kWh.

Variable cost adjustments, such as Gram and Icera, allowed Napocor to recover from or refund to its customers any increase or decrease in fuel and purchased power cost and foreign currency exchange-rate related costs from previous months.

?The entire amount of Napocor?s pass-through costs like Gram and Icera will be felt by electricity consumers being served with power by distribution utilities only if they source 100 percent of their power from Napocor,? ERC said.

?Utilities like Manila Electric Co. procure their power, aside from the Napocor, from Wholesale Electricity Spot Market at approximately 10 percent and from the Independent Power Producers at approximately 45 percent. Thus, impact to consumers of the herein ERC approved Napocor adjustment will depend on the volume of power sourced from Napocor,? the regulator said.

ERC executive director Francis Saturnino Juan said Napocor?s effective rate for Luzon was P3.89 per kWh.

?Before, we minus that [P3.89 per kWh] with the P0.56 per kWh reduction. Now, we subtract only P0.3622 per kWh and that?s why consumers will pay P0.20 per higher,? Juan said.

Napocor?s actual application, which covers July 2008 to September 2008, amounts to an upward adjustment of P0.7284 per kWh. The ERC evaluation, on the other hand, covers the period of July to September 2008 and the prior periods.

Juan earlier said the regulator was moving toward the adoption of an automatic adjustment mechanism for the fuel, forex and purchased power costs of Napocor.

ERC is still finalizing the rules on the automatic recovery, which would allow Napocor to adjust rates monthly.