Lower electricity bills seen this month

MANILA, Philippines—Customers of Manila Electric Co., the country’s biggest power distributor, may expect lower electricity bills this month as the generation charge fell by 16.70 centavos per kilowatt-hour to P5.2051 per kWh.

This means that households consuming 100 kWh a month can expect a decrease of P16.70 in their electricity bills, while those that use 200 kWh a month will enjoy a P33.40-reduction for September, according to Meralco.

The country’s largest power distributor added that households that consume 300 kWh and 400 kWh monthly can also expect decreases of P50.10 and P66.80, respectively.

Meralco said in a statement that the decline in the generation charge this month will effectively offset the additional charge of 3.06 centavo-per-kWh, which will be collected from its customers starting this month.

This additional charge represents P944 million in under-recoveries incurred by Meralco early last year.

According to Meralco, the primary reason for the reduction in the generation charge was the lower cost of electricity purchased from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).