The Manila Electric Company reduced its rates by P0.1852 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for September, ending two consecutive months of rate increases.
The adjustment brings the overall rate for a typical household to P13.0851 per kWh in September, down from P13.2703 per kWh in August.
Meralco Vice President and Head of Corporate Communications Joe R. Zaldarriaga said at a media briefing on Wednesday, that “for residential customers consuming 200 kWh, they will see a reduction of P37 in their total electricity bill.”
We hope that, along with relatively lower consumption during this period, this rate cut will bring relief to our customers,. Zaldarriaga said.
The rollback was mainly driven by a P0.2603 per kWh drop in generation charges, reflecting lower costs from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and Power Supply Agreements (PSAs).
Charges to IPPs fell by P1.3459 per kWh, while those to PSAs declined by P0.3660 per kWh.
According to Meralco, these decreases were supported by a stronger peso and lower international fuel prices. The local currency’s appreciation directly affected around 99 percent of IPP costs and 57 percent of PSA costs, which are dollar-denominated.
The declines offset higher charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), which rose by P0.3785 per kWh due to stronger demand in the Luzon grid—up by 182 megawatts (MW)—and a 132 MW increase in capacity on outage.
Costs also increased with the commencement of collections for contract price adjustments by Sual Power, Inc. (SPI) and South Premiere Power Corp. (SPPC).
The Energy Regulatory Commission approved P5.1 billion in recoveries to be collected over six months starting September, equivalent to P0.26 per kWh each month. This followed a Supreme Court ruling upholding the “Change in Circumstance” clause in their supply agreements, which allowed recovery of additional fuel costs.
For the month, Meralco sourced 65 percent of its supply from PSAs, 29 percent from IPPs, and 6 percent from WESM.
Transmission charges also inched up by P0.1130 per kWh due to higher ancillary service costs from the Reserve Market. Taxes and other charges, meanwhile, registered a net decrease of P0.0379 per kWh.
Meralco said its distribution charge has remained unchanged since August 2022, when P0.0360 lowered it per kWh for a typical residential customer. Consumers also continued to benefit from a distribution-related true-up adjustment equivalent to P0.2024 per kWh.
