The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will implement a P0.85 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) increase in its electricity rates for the month of March.
This brings the overall rate to P10.32 per kwh, or an increase of P170 in the bills of a household consuming 200kwh.
Meanwhile, households consuming 300 kwh will have an increase of P255, 400 kwh will have an adjustment P340, and 500 kwh with and P425 increase.
The implemented increase in rates is lower than the supposed increase of P0.96 per kwh that was staggered to cushion the impact to its consumers, Meralco said.
The remaining P0.12 per kwh increase will be implemented on the April electricity bills.
Generation charges went up by P0.6414 per kwh to P5.2962 per kwh. This was brought by higher charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, and a tighter supply in Luzon due to the growing demand because of warmer temperature.
According to the power distributor, demand for power in the Luzon went up by 366 MW in February.
Meanwhile, transmission charge for March also increased by P0.0503 per kwh due to higher ancillary service charge by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
Taxes and other charges also increased by P0.1583 per kwh.
In February, Meralco also staggered a supposed increase of 1.08 per kwh in its rates to P0.75 per kwh to also cushion the impact of the increase to its customers.
