Meralco to Cut Power Bills by 26 c/kWh This Month

(PNA) – Power bills will go down by 26 centavos per kilowatthour (kWh) for residential customers, the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) said Thursday.

”Meralco announced that after three consecutive months of reduction, the overall rates for its residential customers this August will go down again by PhP 0.26 per kWh,” the company said in a statement.

The distribution utility added typical households with a power consumption of 200 kWh will have a lower bill of Php 52 than last month.

Meralco explained the generation charge, which decreased by 19 centavos per kWh, mainly driven the bills down.

The power firm cited it had lower charges from the Independent Power Producers (IPPs), while trading rates was also down at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).

“It reflected IPPs and WESM registered reductions of Php 0.19 and Php 4.20 per kWh, respectively,” it added.

Meralco further said that Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) had brought an increase of Php 0.12 per kWh due to the outages of the Calaca coal-fired power plant and the natural gas curtailment of the Malampaya that affected the Ilijan power station.

Meralco said IPPs supplied 46 percent of its power requirements last month, PSAs 43 percent and WESM at 11 percent.

Meralco added the lower consumption demand caused by weather disturbances had affected a week of the July supply month.

For the other charges, Meralco bared it had seen reductions of Php 0.04 per kWh for the transmission charge.

The distribution utility stressed its distribution, supply and metering charges also remain unmoved after a reduction last month.

Meralco also said taxes decreased by Php 0.04 per kWh, while other charges had an increase of Php 0.01 per kWh. (PNA) RMA/JLD