THE Manila Electric Company (Meralco) announced yesterday an upward adjustment of P0.2226 per kWh in electricity rates this February.
Meralco said this brings the overall rate for a typical household to P13.1734 per kWh this month from P12.9508 per kWh last January.
For residential customers with a typical consumption of 200 kWh, this adjustment translates to an increase of around P45 in their total electricity bill.
The main driver of this month’s rate increase was the higher transmission charge as it went up by P0.1975 per kWh for residential customers.
This was due to a significant increase in ancillary service charges from the Reserve Market incurred by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) and higher power delivery service charges.
Similarly, other charges — including taxes — had a net increase of P0.0554 per kWh.
The generation charge tempered this month’s increase as it went down by P0.1073 per kWh to P7.6398 per kWh, owing to lower costs from Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
Pass-through charges for generation and transmission are paid to the power suppliers and the grid operator, respectively, while taxes, universal charges, and renewable energy subsidies are all remitted to the governments.
Meralco’s distribution charge, on the other hand, has not moved since the P0.0360 per kWh reduction for a typical residential customer in August 2022.
In another development, the ERC recently mandated a new uniform national lifeline consumption threshold for marginalized and low-income households, including members of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
This means that qualified customers with consumption of 50 kWh or less will get 100% discount on their electricity rates.
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