Manila Electric Co., the country’s largest power distributor, said Monday power rates in April, which will be reflected in consumers’ May electricity bills, dropped by P0.9879 per kiloWatt-hour, reducing the cost of energy for a typical household down to P10.9518 per kWh from P11.9397 per kWh in March.
For residential customers consuming 200 kWh, electricity bill will decrease by around P198 due largely to the sharp decline in generation and transmission charges.
The substantial reduction in the overall electricity rate this month wiped out rate increases since January 2024, bringing the year-to-date adjustment to a net decrease of P0.3066 per kWh.
Generation charge had a reduction of P0.3613 per kWh owing to lower costs from Independent Power Producers and Power Supply Agreements that offset the increase in Wholesale Electricity Spot Market charges.
Charges from IPPs went down by P1.0701 per kWh due to lower costs from First Gas plants. The reduction was mainly due to the non-use of liquefied natural gas by Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo and continued withholding of incremental Malampaya gas costs for First Gas-Sta. Rita under its new Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement.
Following an Order issued by the Energy Regulatory Commission, the Malampaya pricing under First Gas-Sta. Rita’s old GSPA and only landed costs of LNG shall be passed through until separate ERC approval of full costs.
Similarly, charges from PSAs decreased by P0.5733 per kWh mainly due to lower fuel costs of South Premier Power Corp. as well as that of San Buenaventura Power Ltd.
Charges from the WESM increased by P1.0114 per kWh due to tighter supply conditions in the Luzon grid. Average demand went up by 618 MW while average capacity on outage also increased by 473 MW.
IPPs, PSAs, and WESM accounted for 29 percent, 46 percent and 25 percent, respectively, of Meralco’s total energy requirement for this period.
The transmission charge, meanwhile, went down by P0.4665 per kWh following the ERC’s suspension of settlements in the reserve market that drove the significant increase in ancillary service charges in the March electricity rates.
“The significant reduction in this month’s overall electricity rate more than wiped out the increases in power rates for the first quarter of the year. Despite the rate reduction, Meralco continues to encourage its customers to continue practicing energy efficiency especially during summer when consumption historically increases anywhere from 10 to 40 percent due to warmer temperatures,” Meralco vice president and head of Corporate Communications Joe R. Zaldarriaga said.
