Electricity rates of Manila Electric Co. may go down next month following the P0.1528 per kilowatt-hour refund approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission.
Meralco vice president and spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said while the utility is still awaiting final billing from power suppliers, “based on initial projections, there is a strong likelihood that power rates for March 2021 will go down.”
This will be the second consecutive month of rate decrease in 2021 for Meralco’s more than seven million consumers.
“Notably, the March power rate will already include the average refund rate of P0.1528 per kWh, as part of Meralco’s distribution rate true-up,” Zaldarriaga said.
Meralco on Feb. 19 received a copy of the ERC order dated Jan. 27 granting the application of Meralco for the refund of P13.885 billion to consumers in 24 months starting March 2021.
Meralco, in its application, sought the ERC’s confirmation of its actual weighted average tariff against the ERC-approved interim average rate to determine if there was any over or under recovery.
The power distributor sought approval to implement the refund as the actual rate Meralco was able to collect was higher than the computed average rate which ERC determined in the approval of the interim rate.
Meralco’s refund rate will be reflected as a separate line item in the bills of the customers during the refund period.
“This projected decrease in power rates will continue the downward trend in the cost of electricity, with overall rates having decreased by more than 1 peso per kilowatt hour since the start of 2020,” Zaldarriaga said.Alena Mae S. Flores
Meralco’s power rates declined P0.0704 per kWh in February to P8.6793 per kilowatt-hour from the previous month “because of lower generation cost.”