Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 8) — Customers of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will see lower bills this February as the company slashed electricity rates for the second straight month.
In a statement released Tuesday, the power distributor said the overall rate for the month dipped ₱0.1185 per kilowatt hour (kWh) to ₱9.5842 per kWh from ₱9.7027 per kWh registered in January.
This means typical residential customers consuming 200 kWh a month should expect their electric bills to go down by around ₱24, the company said.
Cumulative bill reduction since the beginning of 2022 now stands at ₱39.
Meralco attributed the downward adjustment of rates to the decrease in generation charges, falling ₱0.2305 per kWh to ₱5.1957 per kWh from ₱5.4262 last month on lower costs from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
“Charges from the IPPs went down by ₱0.3395 per kWh due to higher plant dispatch of Quezon Power and First Gas – Sta. Rita. Quezon Power resumed normal operations in the January supply month after experiencing some outages and deration in December, while First Gas – Sta. Rita’s output increased following the completion of the scheduled maintenance outage of Module 10 in December,” it said.
“The IPP charges also reflected a reimbursement from SPEX to First Gas covering a portion of incremental fuel cost incurred in relation to the use of liquid fuel during unplanned Malampaya gas supply restrictions. These were able to more than offset the increase in Malampaya natural gas prices resulting from its quarterly repricing, and an increase in coal prices,” Meralco added.
Likewise, WESM charges also went down ₱13.1277 per kWh due to the significant reduction in Meralco’s WESM purchases.
