Electricity concessionaire Manila Electric Company (Meralco) said that it will implement an uptick in power rates for the month of June.

Meralco has announced a power rate increase of P0.6436 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), bringing the household rate to P12.0575 per kWh from last month's P11.4139 per kWh.

According to the concessionaire, the adjustment would lead to an increase of less than P129 in the total electricity bill for customers consuming 200 kWh.

Meralco attributed the uptick in power rates to the increase in generation charge, which climbed to P0.3466 due to higher costs of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).

'The increase in the generation charge this month would have been higher but Meralco took the initiative to cushion the impact of the higher pass-through costs to our customers with the help from some of our suppliers which deferred the collection of portions of their generation costs,' Jose Ronald Valles, Meralco's senior vice president and head of Regulatory Management was quoted as saying in a press release.

Meralco, together with Quezon Power (Philippines) Ltd., San Buenaventura Power Ltd. Co. (SBPL), and South Premiere Power Corp. (SPPC), postponed the collection of approximately P500 million in generation costs.

This deferral resulted in a reduction of this month's generation charge by P0.1313 per kWh, according to Meralco.

The deferred amount will be billed incrementally over the next three months, as approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission.

This month's billing saw WESM charges increased by P1.5203 per kWh due to tight supply conditions in May, with average demand rising by over 1,200 megawatts.

The Luzon grid was placed on yellow alert for 12 days and on red alert on May 23.

Charges from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) also increased by P0.0224 per kWh. The P0.2988 per kWh decrease in charges from Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) helped mitigate the rise in generation charges.

WESM, IPPs and PSAs accounted for 33%, 29% and 38% respectively of Meralco's total energy requirement for the period.

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