Meralco rate up in June
Three months after reaching the lowest power rate level since August 2017, the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) announced on Friday a power rate adjustment this June.
In a statement, Meralco said the overall rate for a typical household increased by P0.0798 per kWh, from last month’s P8.5920 to P8.6718 per kWh, mainly as a result of higher charges in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.
This is equivalent to an increase of around P16 in the total bill of a residential customer consuming 200 kWh.
This month’s overall rate is still lower than last year’s rate by P0.0534 per kWh. This is also the lowest rate for June since 2018.
The increase this month was tempered by Meralco’s continued implementation of the Distribution Rate True-Up refund, which began March 2021.
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) provisionally approved Meralco’s proposal to refund around P13.9 billion over a period of 24 months or until the amount is fully refunded.
This amount represents the difference between the Actual Weighted Average Tariff and the ERC-approved Interim Average Rate for distribution-related charges for the period July 2015 to November 2020. For residential customers, the refund rate is P0.2761 per kWh and appears in customer bills as a line item called “Dist True-Up”.
Generation charge for June is at P4.6171 per kWh, a slight P0.0697 per kWh increase from last month’s P4.5474 per kWh.
Transmission charge, taxes and other charges for residential customers also registered a slight increase of P0.0101 per kWh.
Meanwhile, collection of the Universal Charge-Environmental Charge amounting to P0.0025 per kWh remains suspended, as directed by the ERC.
Meralco’s distribution, supply and metering charges have remained unchanged for 71 months, after these registered reductions in July 2015.
