00:00It is expected that the cheap electricity bill will not last long now that the weather is cold.
00:05A group is worried that some power plants may be affected again when the weather gets hot.
00:10Energy Department will monitor the situation.
00:13Maki Polido is on the scene.
00:18When it got cold last December, Rosana's family used two electric fans instead of four.
00:23300 pesos was deducted from her January electric bill.
00:27Of course, the 300 pesos can be used to buy rice.
00:3122 pesos per kilowatt hour was deducted from her January electric bill
00:35due to the cheap sales of electricity in the spot market due to the cold weather.
00:39But that is not only because of the low consumption due to the cold weather,
00:42but also because the supply of 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy, mostly solar, has increased.
00:49It means that the supply of renewable energy is increasing rapidly.
00:55We can already feel the effect.
00:58This is just the initial effect because the ones that are coming in are solar.
01:02But according to the Power for People Coalition,
01:04a large part of the consumers are buying electricity from PSA or Power Purchase Agreement.
01:10Electricity is contracted and not bought in the spot market.
01:13It's not like before where electricity is bought at a straight pricing.
01:18The PSA of Meralco will just pass the price increase and decrease to the consumers.
01:24A large percentage of this income is from coal and gas plants, not renewable energy.
01:29The trajectory in the last 10 years is that coal resources and gas resources are increasing.
01:36So that is not the main thing that should be taken.
01:40Meralco has no excuse.
01:42According to the Energy Regulatory Commission,
01:44there are straight pricing contracts for non-renewable energy sources
01:48as long as it is short-term, for example, one year contract.
01:51Now that the heat is coming, Rosana is getting nervous.
01:54During the last heat, the electric bill increased when the supply of electricity was short while the demand was high.
02:00According to the Power for People Coalition,
02:02friends, in the past years, when the demand is high, coal plants are closing.
02:07But they are also the ones who will sell electricity in the spot market.
02:11How much are these same companies earning?
02:14The ERC is investigating if the non-planned closure of electricity plants is increasing.
02:20The Department of Energy is also monitoring this.
02:22It was just too hot during the last heat because of El Nino, so some coal plants were forced to close.
02:27But now that it's hot, they are able to earn enough electricity supply.
02:31We already have additional plants entering.
02:36For GMA Integrated News, Mackie Polido, for Tutok, 24 hours.
02:50For more stories, visit nyseagrant.org
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