An official of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) on Tuesday said the generation charge customers in December will likely ease, ahead of the distribution utility’s official announcement of rate adjustments next week.
“Initial indications show the possibility of lower generation charge this December. We have observed improved supply due to lower demand and fewer plant outages, which could bring down prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market(WESM),” said Joe Zaldarriaga, Meralco spokesperson and vice president for corporate communications.
This development could break the series of Meralco power rate hikes from September to November this year.
Last month, power rates in Metro Manila went up for the third consecutive month due to higher generation and transmission charges.
The P0.2347 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) increase in November brought the overall power rates to P12.0545 from only P11.8198 per kWh in September.
This amounted to an increase of P47 in the total bill of residential customers consuming 200 kWh a month.
Meralco said the higher transmission charge, which went up P0.1211 per kWh for residential customers, may be traced to higher ancillary service charges.
