Power rates in Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) franchise areas will drop by P0.7499 per kilowatt hour (kWh) this month, the private sector electric distribution utility company announced.
Its overall power rates will decline to P12.2628 per kWh in May from P13.0127 per kWh in April, Meralco said in a briefing on Tuesday.
This means the total bill for residential customers consuming 200 kWh a month will fall to P150.
This is the second straight month of electricity rate rollbacks for Meralco customers due to lower generation charges.
Generation charges fall when the electricity prices from both the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and Independent Power Producers (IPPs) drop.
This month’s generation charge dropped P0.3144 to P7.4651 per kWh, Meralco said.
The company said WESM charges decreased by P1.1424 per kWh as a result of a positive supply situation in the Luzon grid.
The rates charged by IPPs also eased by P0.9555 per kWh. The higher average dispatch of power, as well as the appreciation of the peso against the dollar to its strongest level since December 2023, also had a positive impact on 97 percent of the dollar-denominated production cost of IPPs.
Meralco said the reduced cost of electricity from WESM and the IPPs tempered the P0.1884 per kWh increase in the charges covered by Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) .
The higher price of electricity under the PSAs was driven by lower supply versus demand, due to a fall in dispatches last month, Meralco added.
A stronger peso actually saved the day through its positive impact on about 56 percent of the dollar-denominated costs of pre-arranged power supply deals, the utility company said.
This mitigated any further increase in PSA rates, Meralco added.
This month’s Meralco rate was also the result of a P0.2970 per kWh decline in transmission fees from the reserve market and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) for residential customers.
The ancillary service (AS) charges from procurement agreements also registered reductions in April, Meralco said.
he power transmission charge in May no longer carries the Energy Regulatory Commission’s approved adjustments for NGCP’s reserve market transactions in February and March 2024, after collections were completed in April 2025, it said.
Other charges such as taxes also registered a net registered decline of P0.1385 per kWh.
Meralco pays power suppliers their generation fees and the grid operator for its pass-through charges.
The taxes, universal charges and feed-in-tariff allowance against the customers’ accounts are remitted to the government.
Meralco reiterated it only earns from distribution, supply and metering charges at P1.3522 per kWh, which last moved in August 2022.
It said residential customers continue to benefit from the ongoing distribution-related refund equivalent to a monthly bill reduction of P0.2024 per kWh.
Meralco said 26 percent of the total power requirement for May comes from WESM, 33 percent from IPPs and 41 percent from PSAs.
Its total franchise area of 9,685 square kilometers encompasses 36 cities and 75 municipalities, including Metro Manila, all of the provinces of Rizal, Cavite and Bulacan, and parts of the provinces of Pampanga, Batangas, Laguna and Quezon.
