Meralco rate goes up by 63 centavos in August 2025

Customers of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) would expect higher electricity bills this month as the power distributor hiked anew its household power rate due to higher generation charge from power generators and the wholesale spot market.

Meralco is increasing its rate by 63 centavos per kilowatt-hour for the August billing period.

In particular, the company’s overall household rate has gone up to P13.2703 per kWh, higher by P0.6268 per kWh from P12.6435 per kWh in the previous month.

This could translate to an increment of P126 in this month's bill of a typical customer consuming 200 kWh.

Meralco explained that the higher rate in August was due to the increase in generation charge by P0.3749 per kWh “primarily due to increases in charges from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).”

The power distributor said charges from IPPs rose by P0.9476 per kWh due to the nearly P2.00 depreciation of the local currency against the US dollar, which marked its weakest level since the start of the year. 

Meralco said the peso’s weakness affected around 99% of IPP costs which were dollar-denominated. 

According to Meralco, WESM charges also went up by P0.4582 per kWh due to an almost 400 MW increase in average capacity on outage in the Luzon grid.

“Tempering the higher IPP and WESM charges was a P0.2604 per kWh reduction in charges from Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) as a result of lower coal and liquified natural gas prices and improved average PSA dispatch,” the power distribution utility said.

IPPs, WESM, and PSAs accounted for 25%, 7%, and 68%, respectively, of Meralco’s total energy requirement for the period.

Moreover, Meralco said the transmission charge — another pass-through component of the electricity bill — also contributed to the uptick in the August total power rate as it went up by P0.1270 per kWh. 

“The increase was due to the implementation of National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ higher Maximum Allowable Revenue (MAR) and collection of its under-recovery for the years 2016 to 2022, as approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC),” the company said.

Likewise, other charges, including taxes, increased by P0.1249 per kWh.

“Pass-through charges for generation and transmission are paid by Meralco to the power suppliers and the grid operator, respectively, while taxes, universal charges, and Feed-in Tariff Allowance are all remitted to the government,” Meralco said.

The power distributor said that its distribution charge, on the other hand, has not moved since the P0.0360 per kWh reduction for a typical residential customer beginning August 2022.

“Customers also continue to benefit from the ongoing implementation of the distribution-related true-up adjustment, equivalent to a reduction of P0.2024 per kWh for residential customers,” it said. — RSJ/KG, GMA Integrated News