Meralco hikes electricity rates by P0.5682 per kWh in February

After the reduction in January, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) on Friday announced it will increase electricity rates by P0.5782 per kilowatt hour (kWh) this February.

In a statement, Meralco said the upward adjustment was mainly due to the “normalization of generation charges.”

The P0.5682 adjustment brings the overall electricity rate this month to P10.4067 per kWh from P9.8385 per kWh in January.

The upward adjustment will mean an increase of around P114 in the total bill of a typical household consuming 200 kWh.

In a press conference in Pasig City, Meralco head of Utility Economics Lawrence Fernandez said generation charges went up to P5.8939 per kWh from P4.9119 last month.

“This is primarily due to higher charges from plants under Power Supply Agreements (PSA) and Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM),” Fernandez said.

The capacity fees returned to normal levels in February after one-time reductions in PSA charges in January “due to the early completion of annual capacity fee payments for the previous year,” Meralco Public Affairs head and spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said.

“Capacity fees this month returned to normal levels prescribed in the PSAs approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC),” he said.

The main reason for the P1.9217 per kWh increase in PSA charges in February was the return of capacity fees to normal levels contributed by the power plants Sual Unit 1, Ilijan, Pagbilao Unit 1, and Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC).

“The share of PSAs to Meralco’s total requirement this month was at 37 percent,” Zaldarriaga noted. —MDM/VDS, GMA News