Ahead of any official announcement of rate adjustments for February, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said yesterday the cost of electricity in its franchise area was likely to increase due to its higher generation charge.
Joe Zaldarriaga, Meralco vice president and head of corporate communications, said in a statement on Monday the expected higher generation charge for the month is driven by the depreciation of the Philippine peso, which affects the dollar-denominated costs incurred by Meralco suppliers.
“On top of this, we are expecting an increase in transmission charge component of the overall rate with the collection of the remaining 70 percent of the reserve market settlement fees incurred in March last year. To recall, the ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission) directed the recovery of these fees over a period of three months beginning the February billing,” Zaldarriaga said.
“We hope these upward pressures will be somehow tempered by the one-time refund of regulatory reset costs of distribution utilities similarly ordered by the ERC effective this month. This is equivalent to around 23 centavos per kilowatt hour (kWh) for Meralco customers,” he added.
Meralco is scheduled to announce its official February 2025 power rates movement within the week.
Last month, Meralco implemented a P0.2189 per kWh cut in its rates, driven by lower generation charges.
Last month’s adjustment was equivalent to a reduction of about P44 in the bill of a residential customer consuming 200 kWh monthly and brought overall power rates to P11.7428 per kWh from the previous P11.9617 per kWh.
Earlier, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) said that average price of electricity in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in dropped nationwide as of Jan. 25, 2025.
Based on data from IEMOP, the average price per kWh in WESM for the entire Philippines was at P2.96, or a 14.3 percent decline from P3.45 per kWh in December 2024.
The drop was driven by reduced power demand amid an almost unchanged power supply level.
IEMOP data also showed that total average demand in the country for the period fell by 5.6 percent to 12,529 megawatts (MW) from 13,275 MW while average supply slightly went down by 0.2 percent to 20,110 MW from 20,150 MW.
