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Manila Electric Company (Meralco) announced on Tuesday that it would increase its power rates in May.

In a statement, Meralco said it will raise electricity rates by P0.4621 to P11.4139 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from P10.9518 per kWh in April.

This is equal to a P92 increase for residential consumers consuming 200 kWh.

Meralco said the increase was due to higher costs from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and Power Supply Agreements (PSAs), which rose to P0.4455 per kWh.

It added that charges from the WESM rose by P1.7913 per kWh due to the tight power supply in the Luzon grid in April when the demand rose to 2,401 megawatts.

Meralco said that charges from PSAs rose by P0.2871 per kWh due to lower excess energy deliveries of some PSAs, which were priced at a discount.

Meralco said peso depreciation also drove the increase since it affected 14 percent of the PSA costs that were dollar-denominated.

It added that transmission charge, taxes, and other charges also registered a net increase of P0.0166 per kWh.

Meralco said its distribution charge remained the same at P0.0360 per kWh since August 2022.

DMS