Big and small oil companies implemented Tuesday another wave of pump price hikes, their third consecutive so far since the last week of February, while Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will increase its generation charge by P1.3851 per kilowatt hour (kWh) effective in its March billing cycle.

One of the three oil giants, Pilipinas Shell, drew first blood by adding 50 centavos for each liter of gasoline and 25 centavos for every liter of diesel and kerosene effective 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

Three independent oil players late Monday night had announced similar price increases on their respective petroleum products. These companies, which imposed their adjustments at 6 a.m. Tuesday, were Seaoil Philippines, Eastern Petroleum, and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines.

At 8 a.m. Tuesday, Unioil Philippines Corporate Communications Officer Leah Flor sent a text message, stating that the small oil firm had also jacked up prices.

“We would like to inform you that Unioil implemented a price increase on diesel and kerosene P0.25 cents/liter and all gasoline products P0.50 cents/liter VAT inclusive effective 6 a.m.,” Flor said.

The oil firms cited the rise in international crude prices as reason for the domestic increase. Other companies have yet to announce a price hike as of press time.

Tuesday marked the third straight price increase on the part of the local oil firms since February 23 when they padded fuel prices by P1 a liter. Last March 2, gasoline prices were raised by P1 a liter while diesel and kerosene prices were bumped up by 75 cents a liter.

That means that during the past three weeks, oil companies have raised retail prices of gasoline by P2.50 and those of diesel and kerosene by P2.

Following the hikes, the current average retail price of gasoline (unleaded) in Metro Manila now stands at P44; diesel, P34 and kerosene, P44.50.

Meanwhile, after the torment of rotating brownouts, it’s now the consumers’ pockets turn to feel the pinch of the P1.3851 per kilowatt hour (kWh) increase in the generation charge of Meralco due in its March billing cycle.

The generation charge line item in the company’s unbundled tariffs will climb to R6.3154 per kWh from last month’s P4.9303 per kWh.

But the amount of increase to be reflected in the March bills will be contingent upon the approval to be given by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on Meralco’s petition for mitigating measures, which in part, proposes to spread the remainder of the un-recovered generation charge for pass on to consumers over the next six months.

Despite the effort of the utility firm to implement phase-in increases though, the upward adjustment is the most unwelcome development for consumers, since they were also made to suffer sporadically from brownouts in the past weeks.

Without the mitigating measures, the resulting generation charge of Meralco for March billing should have been P6.76 per kWh; or a total of P1.83 per kWh increase from February billing.

“For the supply month of February 2010, petitioner incurred a total generation cost of P15.9 billion, which would translate into a generation charge of P6.76 per kWh to its customers for the March 2010 billing,” Meralco emphasized in its regulatory filing.

The company said that “the sharp and sudden increase in generation cost is mostly accounted for by the high prices in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) brought about by the shortage in electricity supply, as there were several plants which were either out due to preventive or emergency maintenance, or with de-rated capacity because of the El Niño phenomenon.”

The utility firm further noted that the condition of the power plants have been “aggravated by the increase in demand due to the start of the summer season.”

The balance proposed to be recovered from April to September 2010 will amount to P0.446 per kWh or an equivalent of P0.07 per kWh monthly.

Meralco external communications manager Joe Zaldarriaga noted that they explored ways on how to ease the impact of the price spikes, so it will not come “as a price shock to their customers.”

The utility firm has long warned of anticipated electricity price spikes because of many plants shifting to costlier fuels, especially during the month-long shutdown of the Malampaya gas production facility from February 10 to March 11.