The Philippine Online Chronicles

After months of going nowhere but up, Meralco electricity rates will be going down this month. However, the decrease will only be 68.4 centavos (P0.684).

Meralco’s generation charge will be at P5.4119 per kilowatt hour.

This decline is reported to have been brought about by the lowering of prices in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, which dropped by over P5 per kwh in August. While the National Power Corporation (Napocor) increased its charges supposedly because of fuel and purchased power cost adjustment (FPPCA), lower prices from the WESM and independent power producers offset the increase.

What to expect

Since last year, the country has been ranked as having the highest power rates in Asia, making it extremely expensive for both residents and businesses.

According to Philippine Star, those consuming 100 kwh or less will see as much as a P69 cut in their bills. Those consuming 200, 300, 400, 500 and 1,000 kwh may expect P137, P205, P274, P342 and P684 cuts in their bills.

Meralco, the largest electricity distributor in the country, has around 4.8 million customers in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

Why are rates so high?

Electricity rates increased this year by a cumulative of 58.4 centavos (P0.584) after the 8.4-, 5.8- and 44.2-centavo (P0.084, P0.058, P0.442) increases in June, July and August respectively. However, in March, the rates increased by a staggering P1.83 per kwh, followed by another increase in April, making April’s generation rate the highest for the year.

Around 60 percent of the country's Meralco bills come from the generation charge of power plants. On top of everything else, electricity rates are subject to value-added tax and automatic cost adjustments from currency to fuel price fluctuations.

In a press release, Meralco reiterated that generation charges are "pass-through" and do not go to the company, but instead go to payment for transmission and power plant maintenance, among others.

Besides columns and articles analyzing the skyrocketing electricity rates, bloggers have joined the fray in criticizing the move as they give their own analyses and stories of doubling electricity bills in the past months.

According to Arnold Padilla, the move is "neither small nor negligible when viewed in the context of successive rate hikes in the previous month," while blogger chuvaness said she has "lost sleep and energy to do anything trying to make sense of [the increase]" in her bill, which doubled from previous ones in April.

A couple of Facebook users commented not on the month’s rate cut but on the planned rate increase for the next year, while others have created a page protesting Meralco's "exorbitant" rates.

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