Meralco rates up

Electricity rates will go up this month by 13 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kWh) due to higher generation charges, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) announced on Friday.

For a typical household consuming 200 kWh, the overall electricity bill will go up by P26 compared to October.

A press statement issued by Meralco said November’s rate of P8.55 per kWh is still lower by P1.51 compared to November 2014’s P10.06 per kWh. Before this month’s adjustment, total rate reduction for the past six months in 2015 amounted to P2.26 per kWh, Meralco also stressed.

The increase in the overall rates was primarily due to the generation charge, which increased by 9 centavos per kWh from last month due to increased supply prices.

Charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market registered an increase of P1.19 per kWh. This was mainly due to increased outages of a number of power plants during the October supply month.