INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Good news for electricity consumers.
The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) implemented another reduction in rates for the second consecutive month in August, with the electricity bill of a typical household to become cheaper by P0.2087 to P9.5458 per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
This translates to a decrease of about P42 in the electricity bill of a household consuming 200 kWh in a month.
The recent adjustments in prices brought down rates by P0.9154 per kWh over the past two months and by P0.2315 per kWh year-to-date.
For the August billing, the generation charge declined by P0.1944 to P6.5182 per kWh due to lower collection from Power Supply Agreements (PSA). PSA charges decreased by P0.4273 per kWh this month after it “no longer included recovery of deferred generation costs for the April bill.”
Prices in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, which is the marketplace for trading electricity as a commodity, were up P0.0433 per kWh amid tight supply conditions in the Luzon grid.
On July 5, the grid was placed on yellow alert due to “insufficient operating reserves after the forced outage of several large power plants,” Meralco noted. A yellow alert means power reserves are so thin that rotational brownouts may occur.
Charges by independent power producers climbed by P0.4213 per kWh given the rising international fuel prices.
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