MERALCO CUTS RATES
THE Manila Electric Company (Meralco) yesterday announced a reduction of P0.1180 per kWh in the electricity rate this April.
In an advisory Meralco said this will bring down an overall rate for a typical household to P11.3168 per kWh from the previous month’s P11.4348 per kWh.
For residential customers consuming 200 kWh, the adjustment is equivalent to a decrease of around P24 in their total electricity bill.
The generation charge went down to P7.3295 this month from P7.3790 per kWh, even with the collection of the first installment of deferred generation costs equivalent to around P0.20 per kWh this April billing period.
To recall, last month, Meralco coordinated with its suppliers and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to stagger the collection of a total of around P1.1 billion in March generation costs to cushion the impact of the rate increase to its customers.
The effect of the collection of the first installment was more than offset by lower costs from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and Meralco’s Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) for the April billing period.
All other charges, including transmission charge, taxes and subsidies, also registered a net reduction of P0.0685 per kWh.
Collection of the Feed-In Tariff Allowance (FIT-All) remains suspended until the August billing month following the issuance of the ERC Resolution extending the deferral for another six (6) months starting last month. Pass-through charges for generation and transmission are paid to the power suppliers and the grid operator, respectively, while taxes, universal charges, and FIT-All are all remitted to the government.
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.
