Consumers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will enjoy lower rates of P0.3587 per kilowatt-hour in their electricity bill in October on reduced generation charges.
This will bring down the overall rate for a typical household to P11.4295 per kWh from P11.7882 per kWh last month.
Residential customers who use 200 kWh will see a reduction of about P72 in their monthly bill.
Meralco said in a statement the drop was mainly due to a P0.3059-per-kWh reduction in the generation charge, linked to lower costs from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
WESM charges decreased by P5.1001 per kWh following the completion last month of the collection of deferred May 2024 costs ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
Meralco said the supply situation in the Luzon grid also improved, with average demand and outages down by 544 MW and 519 MW, respectively, contributing to the lower power cost.
Charges from independent power producers (IPPs) rose P1.8556 per kWh, while charges from power supply agreements (PSAs) increased by P0.1128 per kWh. WESM, IPPs and PSAs accounted for 24 percent, 26 percent and 50 percent of Meralco’s total energy needs, respectively.
Transmission charge also went down by P0.0383 per kWh on lower ancillary service charges.
Meralco vice president and head of corporate communications Joe Zaldarriaga said the company expects power consumption to soften during the “ber” months when the weather is relatively cooler.
