In an advisory, Meralco said its overall household rate was reduced by 1.06 centavos per kilowatt-hour to P10.8895 per kWh from January’s P10.9001 per kWh.
In particular, WESM charges decreased by P3.7370 per kWh as the supply situation in the Luzon grid improved with less generation capacity on outage, lower demand, and absence of yellow alerts. The continued appreciation of the peso, which affected 95% of IPP costs that are dollar-denominated, also contributed to the reduction, it added.IPPs’ share to Meralco’s energy requirement for the period was at 37%.
Meralco said the reduction in the generation charge balanced the impact of the completion of the third of four distribution-related refunds, equivalent to 19.23 centavos per kWh for residential customers and is no longer reflected in the customers’ electric bills starting February. Meralco’s distribution charge, on the other hand, has not moved since the 3.60 centavos per kWh reduction for a typical residential customer starting August 2022.