MERALCO POWER RATES LOWERED BY P0.36/KWH IN OCTOBER

Power firm Meralco announces a reduction in electricity rates for the month of October after straight months of rate hikes (Photo courtesy of Philippine Daily Inquirer) 

The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) announced lower electricity rates in October, after three straight months of power rate hikes. 

In an advisory, Meralco said that power rates will drop by P0.3587 per kilowatt-hour for the October billing period from PHP11.7882 per kWh in September. The reduction in electricity prices is driven by the lower charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). 

“WESM charges decreased by PHP5.1001 per kWh following the completion last month of the collection of deferred May 2024 costs ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission,” the power distributor said. 

“Also contributing to the reduction was the improved supply situation in the Luzon grid as average demand and average capacity on outage went down by 544 megawatts and 519 MW, respectively.” 

This translates to a decrease for residential consumers with a monthly consumption of:

200 kwh    P72 

300 kwh    P108 

400 kwh    P143 

500 kwh    P179 

On the other hand, charges from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) increased by PHP1.8556 per kWh due to higher costs of contracting from the Malampaya gas field. Charges from Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) also grew by P0.1128 per kWh. 

Meralco acquired 50 percent of its power requirement from PSAs, 26 percent from IPPs, and 24 percent from WESM. Meralco’s distribution charge remains unchanged after the P0.0360 per kWh decrease implemented in August 2022. “The transmission charge also went down by PHP0.0383 per kWh due to lower ancillary service charges. Taxes and other charges similarly decreased by PHP0.0145 per kWh. Pass-through charges for generation and transmission are paid to the power suppliers and the grid operator, respectively, while taxes, universal charges, and Feed-in Tariff Allowance (FIT-All) are all remitted to the government,” Meralco said.   

Source: ABS-CBN News    

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