MANILA (UPDATE) — Power rates are going up in March, Meralco announced Tuesday.

The electricity distributor said that power prices are going up by P0.26/kwh because of a raise in the transmission charge. It also noted that the refunding of reset fees is now over.

This means electricity bills may be climbing by the following amounts:

Consumption Increase
200kwh          P53
300kwh          P79
400kwh          P106
500kwh          P132

In a statement, Meralco said the transmission charge went up by P0.1294 per kWh because of higher ancillary service charges incurred by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

The power utility also said that there was no P0.2264 drop in the reset fee as ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC). There was also a P0.0351 per kWh increase in feed-in tariff allowance. 

Meralco noted, however, that the generation charge went down to P7.0517 per kWh because of lower costs from Meralco’s supply sources. 

Charges from independent power producers fell by P1.0143 per kWh, and charges from power supply agreements by P0.2934 per kWh, because of the appreciation of the peso against the US dollar. 

Wholesale electricity spot market charges also dropped by P0.2247 per kWh because of the improved power supply situation in Luzon.