The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) announced today an overall rate increase to P9.5579 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for November from last month’s P9.0862 per kWh.
The upward adjustment of P0.4717 per kWh will mean an increase of around P94 in a total electricity bill of a typical household consuming 200 kWh.
This was mainly driven by higher Wholesale Electricity Spot Market’s (WESM) higher charges which lead to overall generation charge increase.
WESM charges increased by P3.8016 per kWh due to tighter supply conditions in the Luzon grid.
The generation charge increase to P5.0317 per kWh from last month’s P4.5406 per kWh.
In addition, the Net Settlement Surplus (NSS) refund, which was ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on August 1, was significantly lower for this month. It was around P21 million only.
The NSS refund last September and October totaled around P1 billion, which greatly lower the generation charges for those months.
On the other hand, the power cost from the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) decreased by P0.0476 per kWh and P0.2643 per kWh respectively.
Transmission charge for residential customers also decreased by P0.0767 per kWh.