Manila Electric Company announced today an increase of P0.3297 per kilowatthour, bringing the overall rate for a typical household to P10.2769 per kWh this December from the previous month’s P9.9472 per kWh.
For residential customers consuming 200 kWh, this is equivalent to an increase of around P66 in their total electricity bill.
Meralco said this month’s overall rate increase was mainly due to the completion of a distribution-related refund equivalent to P0.4669 per kWh for residential customers.
However, there are still three ongoing refunds, totaling P1.3340 per kWh for residential customers, being implemented by Meralco that continue to temper customers’ monthly bills.
These are expected to be fully refunded by December 2022, January 2023 and May 2023, and the impact will subsequently be felt in the succeeding billing periods.
Meralco’s distribution charge, on the other hand, has not moved since the P0.0360 per kWh reduction for a typical residential customer beginning August 2022.
Meralco said lower generation charge miitigated this month’s power rate adjustment. The generation charge went down by P0.1942 to P6.7975 from P6.9917 per kWh the previous month.
Charges from power supply agreements (PSAs) decreased by P0.2079 per kWh as the First Natgas-San Gabriel plant went back online on October 15, coming from scheduled maintenance outage from October 1 to 14.
The peso’s appreciation, which affected 38 percent of PSA costs that are dollar-denominated, also contributed to the reduction.
Further pulling down the generation charge was the P1.3985 per kWh reduction in Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) charges due to improved supply situation in the Luzon grid.
Independent Power Producer (IPP) charges, on the other hand, inched up by P0.0545 per kWh. First Gas-Sta. Rita Module 10 was on scheduled outage from November 4 to 11 and on November 19 to 20, while Sta. Rita Module 40 was also on scheduled outage from November 12 to 27. The Peso’s appreciation tempered the increase in the IPP rate, as 98% of IPP costs were dollar-denominated.
