Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 8) — Customers of the Manila Electric Company can expect lower electricity bills for June, following months of sudden spike in power rates.
Meralco announced Monday that customers consuming 200 kilowatt hour (kWh) per month will have a reduction of ₱4 in their billing, ₱6 for 300 kWh, ₱8 for 400 kWh, and ₱12 for those consuming 500 kWh.
From ₱8.75 per kWh last month, the over-all rate for June is down by ₱0.02 per kWh, equivalent to ₱8.73 per kWh.
Meralco said the total rate for the month is the lowest since February 2018.
“Because of the very significant reduction in power demand in its service area during the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) and Modified ECQ period, MERALCO invoked the Force Majeure provision in its Power Supply Agreements for the duration of the lockdown, reducing fixed charges for generation capacity that would have been charged by suppliers,” the power distributor said.
Meralco said the Force Majeure claimed total savings of around ₱1.6 billion, equivalent to customer savings of P0.2208 per kWh.
This represented reduction in fixed costs from its base-load supply contracts and avoided charges from the temporary suspension of the mid-merit supply contracts recently approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission, it added.
Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga previously said that around 2.8 million, or 40 percent of their customers, are about to receive their June bill that reflects their actual consumption in the past four months.
The due date for one-fourth of the consumer’s total bill for this month is on June 30, he said.
