Consumers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) can expect lower electricity rates in January 2025 following the decline in generation charges, an executive said Thursday.
“Indications show a possible decrease in the generation charge in our customers’ bills this January. This will be primarily driven by lower WESM [Wholesale Electricity Spot Market] prices due to improved supply situation in the Luzon grid as both average peak demand and average capacity on outage went down in the December supply month,” Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said.
Meralco is the country’s biggest power distributor with more than 8 million customers in its franchise area.
“We expect this month’s lower generation charge to lead to an overall rate reduction in this month’s electricity rates,” he said.
WESM operator Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippine said that for the December 2024 billing month, the rates were driven by a combination of higher supply and lower demand across all regions.
Data showed that on a system-wide level, average supply increased 3.4 percent or 658 megawatts in the December billing, reaching 20,150 megawatts, while average demand went down by 2.8 percent or 384 MW to 13,275 MW.
IEMOP said the supply and demand dynamics led to a 21.9-percent reduction in the system average price, which dropped to P3.45 per kilowatt-hour from P4.42 per kWh.
IEMOP said that in Luzon Grid, the average supply rose 4 percent, amounting to 14,193 MW, while average demand fell 3.3 percent or 319 MW to 9,344 MW.
This translated into lower regional average price to P3.26 per kWh, down by 23 percent from P4.24 per kWh.
It said supply increased by 3.8 percent or 91 MW to 2,485 MW in the Visayas grid while demand declined 1.4 percent to 1,942 MW.