The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is increasing by P0.0798 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) its power rates for June, which for a household consuming 200 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per month will see P16 added to its bill.

Meralco Spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said that with the increase, the utility’s power rate this month stands at P8.6718 per kWh.

However, the company’s latest power rate hike is lower by P0.0534 per kWh compared to that of May and the lowest rate hike for June since 2018. The generation charge was at P4.6171 per kWh, a slight increase of P0.0697 per kWh from last month’s P4.5474 per kWh.

Meralco said the slight power rate increase was due to this month’s higher power rates to higher charges in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), increasing to P6.4609 per kWh from P4.8287 per KWh in May. The WESM rates increased by P1.6322 per kWh as the Luzon grid faced tight power supply in April and May.

The yellow alert was raised on May 5 over the Luzon grid due to insufficient operating reserves as average capacity on outage remained at the 3,000-megawatt (MW) level. Also, capacity on outage was about 2,700 MW. This resulted in WESM prices staying at high levels.