Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said Monday power rates will be likely higher for August, driven by an expected increase in generation and transmission charges.
Meralco vice-president and spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said the generation charge would likely increase due to the peso’s depreciation against the US dollar to its weakest level this year, which impacts the dollar-denominated costs of independent power producers (IPPs) and power supply agreements (PSAs).
He said the higher prices in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in July and the implementation of a National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) cost recovery would also contribute to the expected increase.
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) earlier approved the NGCP’s cost recovery of about P28.29 billion, or about P0.0384 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). It also approved an average increase in the basic transmission charge of P0.0629 per kWh.
Meralco announced a P0.4883 per kWh increase in July, bringing the overall rate for a typical household to P12.6435 per kWh from P12.1552 per kWh in June.
The primary driver for the July increase was the generation charge, which rose by P0.3407 per kWh. Charges from Meralco’s PSAs and IPPs increased by P0.4476 and P0.4992 per kWh, respectively, due to higher fuel prices and a weaker peso.
Global fuel prices rose in June due to the Israel-Iran conflict. This was exacerbated by the peso’s depreciation to its weakest level since March 2025, which affected about 58 percent and 99 percent of the dollar-denominated costs for PSAs and IPPs, respectively.
The generation charge increase was tempered by a P0.1703 per kWh reduction in charges from the WESM.
The overall rate increase was also affected by a P0.0734 per kWh rise in the transmission charge due to higher charges from the reserve market. Other charges, including taxes, saw a net increase of P0.0742 per kWh.
Pass-through charges for generation and transmission are paid by Meralco to power suppliers and the grid operator. Taxes, universal charges, and feed-in tariff allowances are all remitted to the government.
Meralco’s distribution charge has not changed since a P0.0360 per kWh reduction for a typical residential customer in August 2022.
