The Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) announced a hike in its electric charges for the month of January.
According to the electric power distributor, its increase for January is ₱0.2744 per kilowatt hour (kWh) per customer generating the rate of ₱8.7497 per kWh. If a household consumes 200 kWh per month, an additional ₱55 will reflect in its January bill.
MERALCO explained that the hike is caused by the increase of the generation charge that is currently at ₱4.4574 per kWh. It is higher by ₱0.3058 than December’s charge.
According to MERALCO Spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga, “Despite the increase, this month’s overall rate is still lower compared to that of January last year by P0.70/kWh. The rate for January last year stood at P9.”
He pointed out that the charge hike followed consecutive reduced rates in 2020 that even reached ₱1.39 per kWh. The demand in Luzon in December also decreased due to lower temperature and many non-working holidays.
In relation to this, the power utility giant encourages the public to use MERALCO Online for their transactions to prevent the further spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Report from Rod Lagusad
