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Brix Lelis - The Philippine Star
January 13, 2026 | 12:00am
A lineman works on an electric post along Road 10 in Tondo, Manila yesterday. Meralco announced that electricity rates will decrease by P0.16 per kilowatt-hour in the January 2026 billing period.
Ryan Baldemor
MANILA, Philippines — Meralco is cutting power rates by P0.1637 per kilowatt-hour this month, bringing down its overall rate to P12.9508 per kWh from December’s P13.1145 per kWh.
Major oil companies, meanwhile, are set to hike fuel prices today amid recent geopolitical developments, with diesel going up by P0.20 per liter and gasoline and kerosene by P0.30 per liter.
Concerns over a potential halt in Iranian exports due to civil unrest, disruptions to Russian flows amid the Russia-Ukraine war and uncertainty over Venezuelan supply have pushed up oil prices, according to a local industry source.
Earlier projections had suggested a rollback in domestic pump prices, but last Friday’s trading wiped out those expected decreases.
For the cut in power rates, Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga pointed to lower transmission and generation charges despite upward pressures on certain cost components.
“For our residential customers with a typical consumption of 200 kWh, the adjustment this month translates to a reduction of around P33 in their total electricity bill,” Zaldarriaga said at a press conference yesterday.
The transmission charge, which covers the cost of transporting electricity from power plants to Meralco’s distribution network, dropped by P0.10 per kWh due to lower ancillary service rates.
Ancillary service refers to the cost of backup power purchased by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to support grid reliability.
Also contributing to this month’s rate cut was a P0.0171 per kWh reduction in generation charges, which account for the cost of power procured by Meralco from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) and other suppliers.
Charges from WESM and power supply agreements (PSAs) both declined, while costs from independent power producers (IPPs) rose due to higher fixed fees from a major gas plant in Batangas.
The weakening of the peso against the dollar also added upward pressure, as most IPP costs were dollar-denominated.
The WESM, PSAs and IPPs accounted for seven percent, 71 percent and 22 percent, respectively, of Meralco’s total energy requirement for the period.
Similarly, taxes and other charges registered a net decrease of P0.0837.
The reductions in bill components offset the impact of the green energy auction allowance (GEA-All), which supports incentives for eligible renewable power projects.
The GEA-All, equivalent to an additional P0.0371 per kWh, will appear as a separate line item in customers’ power bills beginning this month.
Meralco remits taxes and other charges to the government, while pass-through charges for generation and transmission are paid to power producers and the NGCP, respectively.
The distribution charge, the only portion that goes to Meralco, has not changed since the P0.0360 per kWh reduction in August 2022.
Meralco provides electric service to over eight million customers in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
