Meralco to charge more in November

Metro Manila, Philippines — Customers of Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will see higher bills this month mainly driven by generation cost, the power distributor announced Tuesday, Nov. 12.

Meralco said the P0.43 adjustment will result in an overall rate of P11.8569 per kilowatt hour (kWh).

This will translate to P85 more in the total bill of those consuming 200 kWh per month, P128 for 300 kWh, P171 for 400 kWh, and P213 for 500 kWh.

Meralco said the generation cost — which is more than half of the billing statement — was higher from a number of sources. The bill will also reflect higher transmission cost, taxes, and other charges.

“Charges from the independent power producers and power supply agreements went up by P0.9392 and P0.4295 per kWh, respectively, largely due to the depreciation of the peso,” it said.

“Meanwhile, charges from the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) inched up by P0.0150 per kWh,” it added.

Meralco said average demand in the Luzon grid was higher by 198 megawatts while average capacity on outage also expanded by 179 megawatts.