Meralco rates seen lower this month

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May 7, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Relief may be in sight for Manila Electric Co. (Meralco)’s eight million customers as power rates are likely to drop this month despite the heat.

Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga has indicated a potential decrease in generation and transmission charges.

Transmission costs, or fees charged for transporting electricity from power plants to distribution systems, could be lower this month due to declining reserve market prices, Zaldarriaga said.

The reserve market is the trading platform for ancillary services, which ensures the stability and reliability of the power grid during supply-demand imbalances.

Generation charges, which reflect the cost of power purchased from energy suppliers, are also likely to decrease following the drop in spot market prices for the April supply period, Zaldarriaga noted.

The Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the centralized venue for power trading, accounted for 23 percent of Meralco’s energy needs for the March supply period.

Last month, system-wide WESM rates went down by 15.3 percent to P4.52 per kilowatt-hour from P5.34 per kWh in March due to higher supply margins.

WESM operator Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) is expecting spot prices to further ease this month amid stable market conditions.

“Given the trend that we’re currently seeing, we have ample supply. We see the same level of margin throughout May,” IEMOP trading operations head Isidro Cacho Jr. told reporters yesterday.

Cacho is hoping that the downward trend will continue for the rest of the year, barring unforeseen and unplanned plant outages.

“Our GOMP (Grid Operating and Maintenance Program) is already scheduled. We make sure there’s still an ample supply margin even with some plants undergoing maintenance,” he said.

Cacho is expecting more renewable power plants to come online this year, providing a much-needed boost to the country’s power supply.