The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) yesterday announced a 10-centavo per kilowatt-hour (kWh) increase in December electricity bills due to the depreciation of the Philippine peso.
The power distributor said there will be an increase in rates by P0.01011 to an overall rate of P8.36 kWh in comparison to P8.61 kWh in December last year.
“This translates to an increase of around P20 in the total electricity bill of a household with a monthly consumption of 200 kWh. The increase this month is mainly due to the upward movement in the generation charge,” Meralco said.
There will be an increase of P30.33 for households with a 300-kWh consumption, P40.33 for 400-kWh, and P50.54 for 500-kWh households.
“The increase resulted mainly from a significant weakening of the peso against the US dollar,” Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said.
96 percent of the cost of power sold by Independent Power Producers and power supply agreements are affected by the foreign exchange movement, he said.
“The increase is also due to lower dispatch this month with the scheduled maintenance of Sta. Rita Module 30, during the whole supply month. The share of the IPPs to Meralco’s total requirements for November was at 36.4 percent,” Meralco said.
Generation charges increased by P0.0915 per kWh. Transmission charge rose by P0.0031 per kWh due to an increase in ancillary service charges.
However, Zaldarriaga noted the drop in Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) charges eased the impact of peso depreciation.
Spot market prices remained low due to lower demand and fewer outages in November.
