Meralco rate rollback seen this month

Customers of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) could expect a sigh of relief as the power distributor forecasts a decrease in its household rate this month.

“Indications show a possible decrease in the generation charge in our customers’ bills this January,” Meralco spokesperson and head of corporate communications Joe Zaldarriaga said.

“We expect this month’s lower generation charge to lead to an overall rate reduction in this month’s electricity rates,” Zaldarriaga added.

The anticipated electricity rate reduction would come on the heels of the P0.1048 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) power rate hike implemented in December last year, which brought Meralco’s overall rate for a typical household toP11.9617 per kWh from P11.8569 per kWh the previous month.

The Meralco official said the expected power rate decrease would be primarily driven by lower Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) prices.

The decline in WESM costs was “due to improved supply situation in the Luzon grid as both average peak demand and average capacity on outage went down in the December supply month,” according to Zaldarriaga.—AOL, GMA Integrated News