Meralco cuts December electricity rate by nearly 80¢ per kWh

MANILA  -Lower generation charge pulled down distributor Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) rates in the December billing period by P0.7961 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), bringing the overall electricity rate of a typical household to P11.2584 per kWh, the company announced on Monday.

This is equivalent to a decrease of P159 in the bill of a customer consuming 200 kWh a month.

According to Meralco, generation charge, or the cost of power purchased from suppliers that accounts for more than 50 percent of the total bill, went down by P0.6606 per kWh to P6.5332 per kWh on the back of lower charges from the spot market and independent power producers (IPPs).

Charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market were cut by P2.7624 per kWh as demand in the power-hungry Luzon grid went down by 420 megawatts (MW).

IPP charges, meanwhile, were slashed by P0.4731 per kWh because of lower coal prices, Meralco said.

Taxes, transmission and other charges had a total decline of P0.1355 per kWh.

This month’s rate reduction ends a two-month streak of increases.

Last month, Meralco’s rates rose by P0.2347 per kWh as transmission charge rose due to higher ancillary service charges.