POWER RATES INCREASED
THE Manila Electric Company yesterday announced an upward adjustment of P0.2639 per kWh in the March electricity rate, bringing the overall rate for a typical household to P12.2901 per kWh this month from P12.0262 per kWh in February.
For residential customers consuming 200 kWh, the adjustment is equivalent to an increase of around P53 in their total electricity bill.
Driving this month’s overall rate increase was the absence of the one-time downward adjustment on reset fee, equivalent to P0.2264 per kWh for Meralco customers, that was implemented in February as ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
Also contributing to the upward adjustment was the P0.1294 per kWh increase in the transmission charge for residential customers, due to higher ancillary service charges incurred by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
This month’s transmission charge also includes the second of three installments of February and March 2024 reserve market transactions for Luzon that ERC directed NGCP to collect.
In addition, this month’s charges reflect the P0.0351 per kWh increase in Feed-in Tariff Allowance (FIT-All) following the ERC’s directive to implement a new FIT-All of P0.1189 per kWh beginning this March, from a previous rate of P0.0838 per kWh.
Subsequently, other charges that include taxes, registered a net increase of P0.0416 per kWh.
Meralco’s distribution charge, on the other hand, has not moved since the P0.0360 per kWh reduction for a typical residential customer beginning August 2022.
