Manila Electric Co. announced Monday a reduction in electricity rates of P0.1637 per kilowatt-hour for January bills, marking the second consecutive month of price decreases for consumers.
Meralco said the adjustment brings the overall rate for a typical household down to P12.9508 per kWh this month from P13.1145 per kWh in December.
Residential customers with a typical consumption of 200 kWh will see a reduction of P33 in their total electricity bill.
Meralco vice-president and corporate communications head Joe Zaldarriaga said that while there were upward pressures on certain cost components, overall rates declined. He said this provides relief to customers at the start of the year.
A lower transmission charge sustained the overall reduction in January. The residential transmission rate declined by P0.10 per kWh to P1.0368 per kWh on lower ancillary service charges incurred by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines from its procurement agreements and the reserve market.
A decrease in the generation charge also contributed to the cut, falling by P0.0171 per kWh to P7.7471 per kWh. This was led by lower charges from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and Meralco power supply agreements.
WESM charges fell by P1.1898 per kWh because of an improved supply situation in the Luzon grid. Average peak demand decreased by 367 MW and capacity on outage dropped by 237 MW.
Charges from power supply agreements decreased by P0.0516 per kWh as the San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co. plant returned to operation following a scheduled outage.
Charges from independent power producers (IPPs) increased by P1.4879 per kWh. This was attributed to higher fixed fees for the Sta. Rita plant after the Energy Regulatory Commission confirmed a new computation method for First Gas Power Corp.
The depreciation of the peso against the US dollar also pushed IPP costs higher since 99 percent of those costs are dollar-denominated.
During the supply period, Meralco sourced 71 percent of its power from supply agreements, 22 percent from IPPs and 7 percent from the WESM.
A P0.0837 per kWh net reduction in taxes and other charges further pulled down rates. This offset the new Green Energy Auction Allowance of P0.0371 per kWh, which began this month to compensate renewable energy plants.
Meralco distribution charges have remained unchanged since August 2022.
