THE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said power rates in its franchise area will drop by P0.1076 per kilowatt hour (kWh) this month of June.
Overall rates this month will be reduced to P12.1552 from last month’s P12.2628 per kWh, equivalent to a P22 decline in the total bill of residential customers consuming 200 kWh monthly, Meralco said in a statement on Wednesday.
This is the second straight month of a rate rollback for Meralco. It is driven by a lower generation charge pulled down by weaker costs of electricity from Power Supply Agreements (PSAs), Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
The company said this month’s generation charge fell by P0.1099 per kWh to P7.3552 per kWh.
Charges from PSAs and IPPs decreased by P0.3699 and P0.1034 per kWh respectively, due to lower fuel costs and higher average dispatch.
Meanwhile, WESM charges also fell by P0.6342 per kWh due to the Luzon grid’s improved supply in May, as the 533 megawatts (MW) reduction in average capacity on outage offset the increase in average demand of about 527 MW.
Meralco said this month’s rate cut could have been higher if not for the increase in transmission charge, which rose by P0.0214 per kWh due to the higher cost of ancillary service purchased by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines from the Reserves Market.
Other charges, including taxes, registered a net decrease of P0.0191 per kWh.
The company reiterated that pass-through charges for generation and transmission are paid by Meralco to the power suppliers and the grid operator, respectively, while taxes, universal charges, and Feed-in Tariff Allowance are all remitted to the government.
It said it only earns from distribution, supply and metering charges at P1.3522 per kWh, which last moved in August 2022.
Customers also continue to get the ongoing distribution-related refund equivalent to a monthly bill reduction of P0.2024 per kWh for residential customers, it added.
The company also said that out of that total power requirements for the month, 18 percent will be sourced from WESM, 33 percent from IPPs and 48 percent from PSAs.
Under Meralco’s current franchise, the company currently serves the entire cities of Caloocan, Las Piñas, Makati, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Manila, Markina, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Parañaque, Pasay, Pasig, Quezon, San Juan, Taguig, and Valenzuela and the municipality of Pateros in Metro Manila.
It also serves as the distribution utility for some parts of Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Batangas, Laguna, Quezon Province and Pampanga.
