Meralco rates up slightly in March billing

Rising spot market prices nudged upward Manila Electric Co.’s overall rates by 2.78 centavos a kilowatt-hour (kWh) in the March billing, even while contract prices of electricity went down.

Residential customers of Meralco that consume 200 kWh will see an increase of close to P6 in their bill.

The distribution giant’s latest overall rate is pegged at P8.8901 a kWh, up from P8.8623 in February, following two consecutive months of decreases that totaled at P1 a kWh.

Meralco said in a statement an increase of P1.0479 a kWh in prices of supply bought at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market raised overall generation charges to P4.6632 a kWh from P4.509.

This happened despite reductions in charges for supply delivered from independent power producers and through power supply agreements.

The rise in spot prices was “driven by higher power demand and tighter supply conditions in the Luzon grid,” Meralco said. “Average capacity on outage increased in February with the scheduled maintenance of some power plants.”

The spot market accounted for 17 percent of Meralco’s supply.