Meralco bill to increase by P55 in January

MANILA, Philippines — Residential customers of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will pay an additional 27.44 centavos per kilowatt-hour for their power consumption in January after two consecutive months of decreases in Meralco’s overall rate.

“Lower demand led to fixed costs from power suppliers being spread over lower energy volume, resulting in higher effective generation rates to consumers,” said Joe Zaldarriaga, spokesperson for Meralco, meaning that while cooler temperatures and less working days meant less power consumption across the board, consumers will have to pay for the company’s costs in December.

For the January billing, the distribution giant’s overall rate went up to P8.7497 per kWh from P8.4753 per kWh in December, translating to an increase of P55 in the bill of a typical residential customer who consumes about 200 kWh per month.

Electricity supply from contracted power plants pushed the overall generation charge by 30.58 centavos from P4.1516 per kWh in December to P4.4574 per kWh in January.

He said the Luzon grid’s peak demand in December decreased by 252 megawatts to 9,634 MW from 9,886 MW due to cooler weather and more nonworking holidays compared to November.