Electricity bills going up by P0.13 per kWh in August – Meralco

Customers of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will find their electricity bills higher by P0.1338 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) at P8.3849 per kWh this August, the power distributor said on Tuesday.

"The slight rate increase this month amounts to a P27 increase in the total bill of a typical residential household consuming 200 kWh," the company said.

This means a typical household consuming 200 kWh will have to pay Meralco P1,676.98 for their electricity consumption this month.

Households paid P8.2511 per kWh or P1,50.22 last July.

The electricity rates this August reflect the last installment of the refund of over-recovery on pass-through charges from January 2014 to December 2016 totaling around P6.9 billion, according to Meralco.

"Meralco’s petition for refund with prayer for provisional authority was granted by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on May 11, 2017 for implementation from June to August 2017," it said.

"The refund is not shown as a separate line item in the bill but is embedded in different pass-through charges indicated in the bill, which include generation, transmission, and system loss charges and lifeline and senior citizen subsidies," it added. — Ted Cordero/VDS, GMA News