Meralco power rates up this month

MANILA, Philippines — There may be an upward pressure for electricity bills this February, potentially marking the second increase since the beginning of the year, according to the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

“While we have yet to receive all the billings from our suppliers, initial indications show that there may be an upward pressure for electricity bills this month,” Meralco vice president and head of corporate communications Joe Zaldarriaga said.

He said this is caused by the resumption of the collection of the feed-in tariff allowance and will soon be reflected through the Energy Regulatory Commission.

Zaldarriaga added that the generation charge will increase because of higher fuel prices such as the imported liquefied natural gas used by gas-fired power plants.

Earlier in January, Meralco announced an increased adjustment of P0.0846 per kilowatt-hour, making the overall rate P11.3430 per kwh.

December 2023 rate stood at P11.2584 per kwh.

The Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) increased by P0.5611 per kwh following higher average capacity on outage in Luzon.

Independent Power Producers also went up by P0.1384 per kwh due to higher fuel costs.

“We hope, however, that this will somehow be mitigated by lower WESM prices, as well (because of) the lower energy demand due to the cool weather during the January supply month,” Zaldarriaga said.