Customers of the Manila Electric Co (Meralco) can expect lower electricity rates this January due to lower electricity charges, the power distributor announced yesterday.
Rates will decrease by P0.2703 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), making the overall rates to P8.09 per kWh, the lowest since October 2009.
Meralco said this month’s generation charge of P3.70 was due to lower generation charges, the biggest component in electricity bills.
With this, a 200 kWh household will see a reduction of P54.05 this month, while 300 kWh households will be reduced by P81. 09.
Meanwhile, P108.11 will be reduced from 400 kWh households and P135 for 500kwh households.
Meralco said the lower generation charge resulted from the P0.59 per kWh decrease in the cost of power supplied by the power supply agreement plants, mainly because of lower capacity charges of Pagbilao and Ilijan.
The reduction in capacity fees is because of the annual reconciliation of outage allowance conducted at the year end under the contracts approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
The cost of power from the Independent Power Producers (IPPS) had a slight reduction of P0.0005 per kWh due to the dispatch of the First Gas – Sta. Rita plant was able to offset the effects of the lower dispatch levels of Quezon Power and First Gas – San Lorenzo.
Meanwhile, the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) charges had a minimal adjustment of P0.0267 per kWh.
A slight increase in transmission charges of customers was recorded at P0.0042 per kWh.
However, taxes and other charges decreased by P0.0394 per kWh.