The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has increased its rates by P0.2834 per kilowatt hour (kWh), starting with the February bills onward for customers in Metro Manila and some nearby provinces.
The company said in a statement on Tuesday the new rates will bring the overall electricity cost to P12.0262 per kWh from P11.7428 per kWh in January.
This also means a P57 “upward adjustment” in the total bill of residential customers consuming 200 kWh monthly, Meralco said.
Prompting the rate adjustment this month was the higher cost of power generation — up by P0.3845 per kWh — which Meralco said was due, in turn, to the higher costs for independent power producers (IPPs) and power supply agreements (PSAs).
IPP charges went up by P0.8355 per kWh due to a weaker peso as 97 percent of the IPP costs were dollar denominated, apart from the effects of higher liquefied natural gas terminal fees and lower average plant dispatch.
Meanwhile, the PSA cost rose by P0.0837 per kWh, with 61 percent of it also affected by the peso depreciation.
Meralco said the price increase could have been higher if not for the lower charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), which amounted to P0.3005 per kWh.
Both average and peak demand in the Luzon grid were lower by 585 megawatts (MW) and 803 MW, respectively, offsetting the impact of the 612 MW increase in average capacity on outage.
Transmission charges for residential customers fell by P0.0013 per kWh as lower ancillary service charges for January supply mitigated the impact of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ first of three monthly collections of adjustments for February and March 2024 reserve market transactions for Luzon.
Taxes and other pass-through charges registered a net increase of P0.1289 per kWh, including the impact of higher Universal Charge-Missionary Electrification rates by P0.0171 per kWh that was approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
Meralco said this month’s rates also reflected a one-time downward rate adjustment of P0.2264 per kWh and another downward adjustment of P0.0023 per kWh, both related to regulatory reset fee adjustments also ordered by the ERC.
The company said that it only earns from distribution, supply and metering charges at P1.3522 per kWh which last moved in August 2022.
The company said that total power requirements for the month consisted of 28 percent from WESM, 29 percent from IPPs and 43 percent from PSAs.
Meralco urged its customers to continue practicing energy-saving measures to cut cost.
“We reiterate our call for all our customers to continue practicing energy efficiency as way of life especially with the upcoming summer months,” said Joe Zaldarriaga, Meralco vice president and head of corporate communications.
The company said some basic power saving tips include the unplugging of appliances when not in use, refraining from overfilling refrigerators, regular cleaning of air conditioner filters and the use of LED bulbs.
