Meralco cuts electricity rate by ₱0.0428/kWh for August 2026

The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) announced Monday that electricity rates will go down by ₱0.0428 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for the August billing.

The price slash came after months of rate hikes since June 2026. This will bring down the overall rate for a typical household to P14.7833 from P14.8261 per kWh in July.

Meralco said the reduction is equivalent to around P9 cut in the electricity bill of households consuming 200 kWh.

"The main driver was the ERC-approved refund, that was able to offset other increases in the other bill component. So the refund is equivalent to P0.5861 per kWh," said Meralco Vice President and Head of Corporate Communications Joe Zaldarriaga in a press conference.

It can be recalled that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) ordered Meralco to refund P9.5 billion to its customers. This was after Meralco sought the commission's approval and confirmation of the true-up calculation of the Actual Weighed Tariff (AWAT) from the periods January 2025 to June 2025 and July to December 2025.

"So 'yung naging main reason for the overall reduction ay 'yung unang buwan ng pag-i-implement ng tinatawag na AWAT refund na inaprubahan ng ERC," said Meralco Head for Utility Economics Lawrence Fernandez in the presser.

(So the main reason for the overall reduction was the first month of implementing the so-called AWAT refund approved by the ERC.)

"For a typical 200kWh household customer of Meralco, it's a deduction of P117 in your bill," he added.

However, the rate reduction could have been higher if not for the increase in other charges. For instance, the ancillary service charges went up by P0.3024 per kWh.

Taxes and other charges registered a net increase of P0.2113 per kWh.

Generation charge also increased by P0.0296 per kWh.

Meralco said that pass-through charges for generation and transmission are paid by the power distributor to the power suppliers and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, respectively, while taxes, universal charges, and Feed-in Tariff Allowance are all remitted to the government. —AOL, GMA News