Meralco lowers January electricity rates by P0.3418 per kWh

The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) said Tuesday the overall electricity rates will decrease by P0.3418 per kilowatt hour to P9.8385 this month.

The lower cost of power has allowed the electricity distributor to adjust downward the rates in its service area.

“The downward adjustment of P0.3418 per kWh will mean a decrease of around P68 in the total bill of a typical household consuming 200 kWh,” Meralco said.

The new electricity rate compares with P10.1803 per kWh in December 2018.

Meralco raised electricity rates by P0.0902 per kWh last December, equivalent to an increase of around P18 in the total bill of a typical household consuming 200 kWh.

The generation charge for January went down to P4.9119 per kWh, a decrease of P0.4184 per kWh from P5.3303 per kWh in December.

“The decrease is mainly the result of a P1.2293 per kWh reduction in the cost of power from Meralco’s Power Supply Agreements (PSAs). The share of PSAs to Meralco’s total requirement this month was at 40 percent,” the company noted.

“Lower PSA charges were brought about by a reduction in capacity fees as a result of the annual reconciliation of outage allowances done at the end of each year under the PSAs approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC),” Meralco Public Information Office head Joe Zaldarriaga said. 

This January, charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) declined by P0.0165 per kWh due to an improvement in the power situation in Luzon. WESM supplies 18 percent of Meralco’s needs.

It helped offset the cost of power from Independent Power Producers (IPPs)—currently supplying 42 percent of Meralco’s needs—which went up by P0.0847 per kWh due to the peso depreciation. —VDS, GMA News