MANILA, Philippines– The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will hike power rates in March, as the scheduled maintenance of the Malampaya facility triggered an increase in generation charges.

Meralco, the Philippines’ largest private electricity distribution firm, is implementing an upward adjustment of P0.55 per kilowatt hour (kWh), bringing the overall rate for a typical household to P11.43 per kWh in March from February’s P10.89 per kWh.

Households consuming 200 kWh will see an increase of P109 in their total electricity bill.

Meralco said that Malampaya’s maintenance shutdown last February pushed up generation charges to P7.38.

“This month’s generation charge increase would have been significantly higher, but we took the initiative to cushion the impact on the bills of our customers by coordinating with some of our suppliers to defer collection of portions of their generation costs,” Meralco head of regulatory management office Jose Ronald Valles said.

Valles said that around P1.1 billion deferred costs reduced the generation rate for March, and will be billed on a staggered basis over the next two months, as coordinated with the Energy Regulatory Commission.

Meralco distributes electricity to 38 cities and 73 towns in Metro Manila and central and southern Luzon. – Rappler.com