Meralco: Power rates likely to rise in April
By Jed Macapagal – April 9, 2025
from Malaya Business Insight
AHEAD of official announcements of rate adjustments for April, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said the cost of electricity in its franchise area would likely increase due to higher generation and transmission charges.
Joe Zaldarriaga, Meralco vice president and head of corporate communications, said in a statement on Tuesday that the expected increase in charges is driven by higher prices in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and ancillary services charges.
“We are still waiting for some billings but indications point to possible increase in the generation and transmission charges,” Zaldarriaga said. “We expect higher WESM prices due to tight supply situation in the last supply month with initial information showing an increase of over 1,000 megawatts (MW) in average demand and almost 1,000 MW in average capacity on outage.”
“In addition, higher ancillary service charges due to higher Reserve Market Prices will likely drive transmission charges in the April billing,” he added.
However, Meralco said it is hopeful that it can start implementing the P19.95 billion worth of refund to take effect over 36 months as approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), to help mitigate the possible increase in power rates this month.
The ERC earlier ordered Meralco to start refunding the P19.9 billion it overcharged its customers from July 2022 to December 2024.
“This is equivalent to around 20 centavos per kilowatt hour (kWh) downward adjustment for residential customers starting this month,” Zaldarriaga said.
Meralco is scheduled to announce its official April 2025 power rates movement within the week.
Last month, Meralco implemented a P0.2639 per kWh increase in its rates mainly driven by higher transmission charges, feed-in-tariff allowance charges and taxes, among others.
The adjustment was equivalent to an increase of around P53 in the bill of a residential customer consuming 200 kWh monthly and brought overall power rates to P12.2901 per kWh from the previous P12.0262 per kWh.
Earlier, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) said the average price of electricity surged in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in the entire country as of March 25, 2025.
Based on data from IEMOP, average price per kWh in WESM for the entire Philippines was at P5.34 compared to February’s P2.73 per kWh, or equivalent to a 95.5 percent jump.
The increase was driven by higher demand amid lower available power supply for the period.
IEMOP data also showed the total average demand in the country for the period rose 5.9 percent to 13,670 MW from 12,904 MW, while the average supply dropped 4.4 percent to 19,611 MW from 20,512 MW.
