MERALCO rolls back power rates to lowest since August 2017

The Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) will once again roll back its power rates for the second month in a row this March due to lower generation charges and the recent refund ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

In a statement, the power giant said that it will cut the overall rate by Php0.3598 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from Php8.6793/kWh last month to Php8.3195/kWh this month, the lowest since August 2017. This translates to a Php72 decrease in the electric bill of households consuming 200kWh.

MERALCO’s generation charge particularly went down to Php4.3749/kWh from Php4.4152/kWh in February due to the higher share of supply from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).

“Despite an increase in Luzon peak demand from 9,162 megawatts [MW] to 9,574MW, charges from the WESM remained relatively stable at Php2.4609/kWh. WESM share was up from 7.1 % last month to 11.7% this month,” the statement read.

Back in February, the ERC approved MERALCO’s Php13.9 billion refund proposal, which would be implemented over 24 months. The Php0.2761 refund rate will appear in the bills of residential customers as “Dist True-Up,” which stands for the Distribution Rate True-Up refund.

As 2020 came to a close, the ERC also ordered MERALCO to refund over-recoveries in transmission and other charges to be done for around three months and to collect under-recovery in the generation rate for about a year. 

From January to March, MERALCO implemented a net refund of around Php0.1150/kWh.