Meralco announces September electricity rate hike

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 8) — Power distributor Manila Electric Company (Meralco) on Friday announced a ₱0.5006 per kilowatt hour (kWh) increase in September electricity rates.

The price hike ends three months of consecutive rate decline, raising the overall rate for a typical household to ₱11.3997 per kWh from ₱10.8891 per kWh in August.

This translates to an increase of around ₱100 in the total bill of residential customers consuming 200 kWh, the company explained.

“After three consecutive months of decreases totaling ₱1.2768 per kWh, the generation charge for September went up by ₱0.4323 to ₱6.8252 per kWh from ₱6.3929 per kWh last month due to higher costs from Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) and Independent Power Producers (IPPs),” it said.

Meralco said higher fuel prices and the Philippine peso’s depreciation against the US dollar triggered the increase in costs for PSAs and IPPs.

Meanwhile, Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) charges went down due to reductions in adjustments and other charges, the firm said.

PSAs covered 39% of Meralco’s total energy requirement for September, followed by IPPs at 36%, and 23% from WESM, it added.