Customers of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) may face higher power rates this month due to an anticipated double-whammy increase in generation and transmission charges — reversing last month’s reduction.

In a text message on Monday, Meralco vice president and head of Corporate Communications Joe R. Zaldarriaga said generation charge is likely to rise as the weaker peso drives up costs for power suppliers, whose charges are mostly dollar-denominated.

The transmission charge, on the other hand, is also set to increase with the collection of the remaining 70 percent of reserve market settlement fees incurred in March 2023, as directed by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

Refund, nonetheless, coming

“We hope these upward pressures will be somehow tempered by the one-time refund of regulatory reset costs of distribution utilities similarly ordered by the ERC effective this month. This is equivalent to around 23 centavos per kWh (kilowatt-hour) for Meralco customers,” Zaldarriaga said.

Meralco customers started the new year with a P0.2189 per kWh reduction in electricity rates, which brought the monthly charge to P11.7428 per kWh from P11.9617 per kWh in December.

Residential customers consuming 200 kWh saw a decrease of about P44 in their total bill.