MANILA, Philippines — Customers of Manila Electric Co. should brace for power rates creeping up in May, as the power distributor announced a fresh round of hikes as generation charges turned expensive.
In a statement on Thursday, the Pangilinan-led power utility raised overall rates to P11.4929 per kWh from P11.3168 per kWh. This is equivalent to a P35 increase in the monthly bill for residential customers that typically consumes 200 kWh per month.
Meralco explained that the generation charge rose owing to power sold in the spot market and supply agreements turning expensive. Broken down, spot market charges surged by P1.7367 per kWh as demand spiked in the Luzon grid.
Charges from power supply agreements rose P0.9086 per kWh due to the peso’s weakness, since a quarter of PSA costs were dollar-denominated.
The increase was tempered by a reduction in transmission charges of P0.2455 per kWh. — Ramon Royandoyan