Electricity rates for households serviced by Manila Electric Company (Meralco) are slightly increasing in October.

Customers will see a hike of P0.0283 per kilowatt-hour in their October bill, to P9.1374 per kWh. Meralco attributed the increase to a higher transmission charge.

The slight upward adjustment is equivalent to increases for households consuming the following:

• 200 kWh – P5.66
• 300 kWh – P8.49
• 400 kWh – P11.32
• 500 kWh – P14.15

Meralco rates have gone up every month for the past seven months.

According to the power distributor, the transmission charge for residential customers inched up by P0.0282 per kWh to P0.7085 per kWh. This, Meralco said, is due to higher ancillary service charges, accounting for about 33% of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ total transmission cost.

Unlike in the past months, the October bill will have a minuscule decrease in the generation charge, posting a P0.0004 per kWh decline to P5.0435.

Power spot prices were lower by P1.2061 per kWh, attributed to lower demand and fewer outages. With this, the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market share rose to 13.4%.

Charges from independent power producers (IPPs) went down by P0.0527, while power supply agreements (PSAs) increased by P0.3156.

According to Meralco, the increase in PSA rates is due to higher fuel prices and the depreciation of the peso.

IPPs and PSAs provided 37.1% and 49.5%, respectively.

Meralco said the distribution rate refund worth P0.2761 per kWh slightly tempered the increase in charges.

Meralco also reiterated that generation and transmission charges are all pass-through charges, meaning it does not earn from these.

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