Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) announced Friday a “slight” increase to electricity rates in September due to higher generation charge. 

 

In a statement, Meralco said the overall rate for a typical household inched up by P0.1055 per kWh to P9.1091 per kWh from last month’s P9.0036 per kWh due to higher generation charge. 

 

This is equivalent to an increase of around P21 in the total bill of a typical residential customer consuming 200 kWh.

 

Generation charge, which makes up about 55% of customers’ electricity bills, increased by P0.1117 per kWh to P5.0439 from last month’s P4.9322.

 

Broken down, charges from the Power Supply Agreements (PSA) registered an increase of P0.2494 per kWh. 

 

Meanwhile, Independent Power Producers (IPP) charges also increased by P0.0955 per kWh due to lower average plant dispatch with the forced outage of Quezon Power (460 MW) and scheduled outage of San Lorenzo Module 50 (265 MW).

 

On the flip side, lower demand in the Luzon grid also offset the impact of higher plant outages during the August supply month. As a result, Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) charges registered a reduction of P0.7504 per kWh. 

 

Following the government’s announcement which placed the NCR, Bulacan, Cavite, Lucena City in Quezon and Rizal under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ), Meralco earlier announced that disconnection activities will remain suspended in the said areas.