MANILA - Meralco is raising power rates in February.

The power distributor said it is hiking electricity rates by P0.5738/kwh. This brings the rate for a typical household to P11.9168 per kWh from P11.3430 per kWh in January.

The power utility said this is because of an increase in generation charge, taxes, system loss and feed in tariff allowance.

This means customers will have the following amounts added to their electricity bills this month depending on their consumption:

200kwh - P115

300kwh - P172

400kwh - P229

500kwh - P287

In a statement, Meralco said generation charges went up to P7.1020 per 

kWh from P6.6468 per kWh due to higher cost of power from independent power producers (IPP) and power supply agreements (PSA).

Charges from IPPs increased by P1.4764 per kWh due to higher fuel costs, while charges from PSA inched up by P0.1558 per kWh.

These, however, were tempered by the P0.4071 per kWh decrease in charges from the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) on the back of improved supply situation in the Luzon grid.

Transmission and other charges, meanwhile, registered a net increase of 0.1186 per kWh.

Meralco’s distribution charge, on the other hand, has not moved since the P0.0360 per kWh reduction for a typical residential customer in August 2022.

--With reports from Alvin Elchico, ABS-CBN News