The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) announced Friday a slight upward adjustment of P0.0229 per kWh in the March electricity rate.

This brings the overall rate for a typical household to P11.9397 per kWh this month from P11.9168 per kWh in February.

For residential customers using 200 kWh, the adjustment is equivalent to an increase of less than P5 in their total electricity bill.

Driving this month’s overall rate increase is the P0.3976 per kWh increase in the transmission charge for residential customers due to higher ancillary service charges, which more than tripled this month and now account for around 52 percent of total transmission costs.

This increase was tempered by a P0.3518 per kWh reduction in the generation charge. Meralco