MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) said its customers should expect lower rates this January.
The drop is due to several factors in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), and an improved electricity supply situation in the Luzon grid, Meralco Vice President and Head of Corporate Communications Joe Zaldarriaga said.
Meralco raised its rates by 1.048 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kWh) last December, bringing the overall rate for a typical household to P11.9617 per kWh in December, from November’s P11.8569 per kWh.
Residential customers with a consumption of 200 kWh were billed P21 more for that month.
Meralco’s estimates are also aligned with the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) as they also said that based on preliminary data, average supply went up on a system-wide level, reaching 20,150 megawatts (MW) for the December billing period of 2024, up from 19,492 MW last November.
Average demand went down to 13,275 MW in December from 13,659 MW in November, leading to downtrend in the system average electricity price in the WESM, which was at P3.45 per kWh for the December billing period, as compared to the P4.42 per kWh in November.
The IEMOP said that based on preliminary data, the average supply rose by 4 percent, amounting to 14,193 MW for December from 13,645 MW in November, while average demand fell by 3.3 percent, settling at 9,344 MW in December from 9,663 MW in November.
As a result, the regional average electricity price in Luzon dropped to P3.26 per kWh for December from P4.24 per kilowatt-hour in November.
IEMOP said the final rates for the December billing period will be due on Jan. 12.
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