The Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) announced an overall decrease in electricity rates to P9.8385 per kWh, compared to last month’s P10.1803 per kWh.
A typical household consuming 200 kWh will have a decrease of about P 68 in their total bill, which means a downward adjustment of P0.3418.
This month’s generation charge logged a decrease of P4.9119 per kWh from last month’s P5.3303 per kWh, totalling a decrease of P0.4184 per kWh.
The decrease is mainly due to the P1.2293 per kWh reduction in the cost of power from Meralco’s Power Supply Agreements (PSAs).
“Lower PSA charges were brought about by a reduction in capacity fees as a result of the annual reconciliation of outage allowances done at the end of each year under the PSAs approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC). The early completion of annual capacity payment for Sual Unit 1, Ilijan, Pagbilao Unit 1 and PEDC resulted in savings immediately passed on to consumers by way of lower electricity rates. The capacity fees of PSAs will return to normal levels in January that will impact on February bills after the downward adjustment in December,” Meralco Public Information Office Head Joe Zaldarriaga said.
Aside from decrease in PSAs, charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) also went down by P0.0165 per kWh due to improvement in the Luzon power station.
Power demand in the Luzon grid decreased by 101 MW.
However, cost of power from the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) went up by P0.0847 per kWh due to Peso depreciation.
Transmission charge of residential customers also increased by P0.1210 per kWh this month due to higher NGCP Ancillary Service Charges.
Tax and other charges went down by P0.0444 per kWh this month.
