Meralco customers to see lower bills anew this July

For the third straight month, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) customers would be enjoying another rate reduction, this time at 10.68 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kWh) thanks to lower costs from independent producers (IPPs) that offset higher prices at the spot market.

In a statement, Meralco said the price cut would mean a decrease in the July bill of about P21 for a typical residential customer using 200 kWh in a month.

The distribution giant said that for the July billing period, its overall charge went down to P9.9850 per kWh from P10.0918 per kWh in the June billing period.

The generation charge alone went up slightly by 0.69 centavos per kWh to P5.4227 per kWh from P5.4158 per kWh previously.

Meralco said the cost of electricity sourced through power supply agreements was still “stable,” with an increase of 4.14 centavos per kWh and representing 50.5 percent of the company’s supply this month.

There was also an increase of P1.8794 per kWh in the cost of electricity from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, which provided 8 percent of Meralco’s supply.

The cost of power from IPPs—which accounted for 41.4 percent of Meralco’s supply—decreased by 22.39 centavos per kwh mainly due to the depreciation of the peso against the US dollar. About 97-percent of the costs from IPPs are dollar-denominated.

Meralco added there was also a 7.88 centavo per kWh reduction in the transmission charge for residential customers while taxes and other charges went down by 3.49 centavos per kWh.