The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) on Thursday dropped hints of another upward adjustment in the cost of electricity within its franchise area.
An influencing factor cited for the likely increase includes the higher cost of electricity at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market resulting in part from tight supply conditions as power demand surged with the rise of the heat index.
“Peak demand in Luzon increased by about 2,400 megawatts compared to March. In April alone, the Luzon grid had six days of yellow and five days of red alerts,” noted Joe Zaldarriaga, Meralco vice president and head of corporate communications.
“We continue to remind the public to practice energy efficiency to have better management over their power consumption and electricity bills,” he quickly added.
In April, Meralco imposed a P0.9879 per kilowatt hour (kWh) reduction in rates on the back of sharp cuts in both the generation and transmission charges.
The adjustment translate to a reduction of around P198 in the monthly bill of a residential customer consuming 200 kWh and brought the overall power rate to P10.9518 per kWh from the previous P11.9397 per kWh.
