Meralco power rates go up again in August

MANILA, August 13 ------ Meralco electricity rates are going up again in August. The utility said power costs were going up by P0.63/kwh due to higher generation and transmission charges. This means electricity bills may be going up by the following amounts:

Consumption Increase

200 kwh P125

300 kwh P188

400 kwh P251

500 kwh P313

In a statement, Meralco said the generation charge went up by P0.3749/kWh because of higher charges from independent power producers and the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM). Charges from independent producers climbed by P0.9476 per kWh because of the depreciation of the peso against the US dollar. Almost all costs of independent producers are dollar-denominated.

Independent producers also produced less power from June to July as some plants were on scheduled maintenance. WESM charges, meanwhile, increased by P0.4582 per kWh due to an almost 400 MW hike in average capacity on outage in the Luzon grid. Meralco noted, however, that charges from power supply agreements fell by P0.2604/kwh because of lower coal and liquified natural gas prices. Transmission charges, meanwhile, went up by P0.1270/kWh. Meralco power rates also climbed up in July.

Source: news.abs-cbn.com