Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said on Thursday electricity rates in April will rise by P0.7226 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), pushing the overall residential rate to P13.0127 per kWh from March’s P12.2901.
This translates to an approximate P145 increase in the monthly bill of households consuming 200 kWh. The higher rates will be reflected in the bill that consumers will receive during the May billing cycle.
The primary driver behind the increase was the higher generation charge, which rose by P0.7278 per kWh due to surging prices in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). WESM charges jumped by P3.4205 per kWh amid tight supply conditions in the Luzon Grid last March. Luzon experienced increased demand — up by 816 MW on average — and higher capacity outages, which led to Yellow Alert status on March 5 and the activation of the secondary price cap 6.39 percent of the time.
Contributing to the power rate hike was the P0.2811 per kWh increase in charges from Power Supply Agreements (PSAs), following the expiration of Meralco’s 400 MW contract with Limay Power Inc. These were partially offset by a P0.4738 per kWh drop in charges from Independent Power Producers (IPPs), benefitting from a stronger peso that lowered dollar-denominated costs.
Transmission charges for households also climbed by P0.0809 per kWh due to higher ancillary service costs from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). Taxes and other charges added another P0.1163 per kWh.
Tempering the overall hike was the implementation of a P0.2024 per kWh distribution-related true-up adjustment, part of a P19.9-billion ERC-approved refund over 36 months. Meralco’s distribution charge itself remains unchanged since its reduction in August 2022.
