Meralco workers conduct maintenance operations
MANILA, Philippines — Consumers may face higher power bills this month, as the prices of electricity traded at the spot market in August increased by 15.3 percent to P4.59 per kilowatt hour (kWh) due to the “widespread” plant outages in the Visayas.
Data from the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) showed Wednesday, that the systemwide power rates covering the August supply had gone up from the previous month’s P3.99 per kWh.
This, as demand was higher by 1.7 percent to 14,052 megawatts (MW) while the supply during the period weakened by 0.7 percent to 20,611 MW.
READ: Visayas grid under ‘yellow alert’ for 4th time this 2025
IEMOP operates the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), an avenue where power is traded between producers and distributors to boost their supply.
The WESM rates are under generation charges, which account to more than half of electricity bills.
“Coincident forced and planned outages of cheaper plants during the second week of the August billing period led to overall price increases,” IEMOP said.
READ: Meralco increases power rates by 45 centavos/kwh in July
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