Meralco rates up by more than 8¢ per kWh

MANILA, Philippines  —Customers may notice a slight increase in their January electricity bills after generation charges pulled up distributor Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) rates by P0.0846 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), bringing the overall electricity rate of a typical household to P11.3430 per kWh, the company said on Wednesday.

This is equivalent to an increase of P17 in the total 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 up by P0.1136 per kWh to P6.6468 per kWh due to higher charges from the spot market.

Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) charges went up by P0.5611 per kWh as more power plants in the Luzon grid were on scheduled maintenance shutdowns.

Charges from independent power producers also went up by P0.1384 per kWh because of higher fuel costs resulting from imported liquefied natural gas, Meralco said.

Taxes, transmission and other charges, meanwhile, had a total net reduction of P0.0290 per kWh.

In December, lower generation charges cut Meralco rates by P0.7961 per kWh.