Power rates down

INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

Customers of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) should expect a decrease in their power bill—at least for this month of May—as a result of a drop in generation charges from suppliers.

Meralco said overall rates went down by P0.70 per kilowatt hour (kWh) to P9.98 per kWh.

For a typical household consuming 200 kWh, the overall electricity bill will go down by P140.

The biggest component of overall rates is the generation charge, which decreased by P0.60 per kWh to P4.81 per kWh this month from P5.41 per kWh in April.

The reduction was mainly driven by lower charges from the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) and independent power producers (IPPs), as well as a reduction in the National Power Corp.’s generation rate adjustment mechanism (GRAM) collections.

Cost of power sourced from the WESM decreased by P4.19 per kWh due to less occurrences and shorter duration of power plant outages.