Did your Meralco bill increase?

Our electric bill tripled from P700 in March to P2,000 in April. Although there was a slight increase in usage from March to April, the increase should have not been that drastic.
Other PMT Forum members are also complaining of the unexpected rise in their Meralco bills.

  • brixxx214: Ang P1,800 ng monthly na bill ko ay umabot ng P3,000!!!
  • bizzy: Sa amin, P1,500 per month naging P3,100.. tsk tsk… kaiyak!
  • bizsum: From 12k went up to 15k.  With the the sizzling heat, I expect a bigger bill next month.
  • bp22estafa: From 6,500 last Feb to 9,300 last March, then 12,800 for the latest billing.

So who’s to blame?
Mea culpa (not our fault), says Meralco. Blame it on the electricity suppliers. In a note attached to electric bills they recently sent to customers, Meralco explains:
Dear customer,
You may have noticed an increase in this month’s electric bill.
In recent months, there have been increases in the generation charge component of the electric bill. In April alone, the generation change went up by 0.93 centavos/kWh to P6.7699/kWh from P5.8417/kWh in March.
The rise in generation charges springs from the high cost of electricity that Meralco buys from its suppliers. These suppliers consist of the National Power Corporation (NCP), Independent Power Producers (IPP) and Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
The major factor that caused the sharp rise in electricity was because of the increase in the price of WESM, a venue for trading electricity as a commodity in the spot market.
Meralco does not add any mark-up to the cost of electricity purchased from these electricity suppliers. The generation cost, which averages about 50-60% of your electric bill, goes directly to Meralco’s power suppliers and adds nothing to Meralco’s income.
If you will take a minute to examine your electric bill (found in the last column of you bill), you will note that what goes to Meralco is approximately 20-25% of your total bill. The rest go to the power suppliers for the cost of electricity, the NGCP for transmission charges, and to the Government in the form of taxes.
It may not be Meralco’s fault entirely, but they should at least lessen the burden of customers by finding ways to bring down the cost of electricity. It may be high time now, too, to look for alternative or renewable sources of energy.
How was your Meralco bill recently? How big was the increase?
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18 thoughts on “Did your Meralco bill increase?”

  1. Our electric bill increased from Php 1200+ to Php 2500. We are expecting more on our next bill due to summer season.

    Reply
  2. Philippines electricity cost is the highest in the world. When i was in Manila, did not know the high charges and paid through the nose. I did lot of research and it seems, the price is unfair and favors some families like lopaz. Their is no justification for high price, when even countries in africa have lesser cost.
    This is just plain loot and thievery, lots of big companies and BPO have opted not to open offices in PH due to this reason. I’m surprised, no one has made this an election issue this time. Everyone is involved. Electricity is a 100 year old invention and even in todays time, its made seem like a diamond in PH.
    This talk of electricity purchase from suppliers etc is pure BS. These chinese families are not allowing, new power plants to come up. Few Chinese families have taken down PH to the ground.
    There must be a mass campaigns against this thievery, else many business will leave. I’m from India, we loved the PH and the talent there, we tried to open a call center, but the high cost of electricity, cut of 30% of our revenue, we were not able to give, less price to our clients, we closed our call centre, before it even began.
    In India 1kw is 4 Pesos…In PH its 16 Pesos, thats crazy..are they making diamonds there, the same procedure is used in both places to generate electricity. Government should take over the production of electricity than private companies, they are there for profit, not benefit to the society.

    Reply
  3. Hindi naman triple but hurts just as much, from an average na 4.5k, and an expected na 5.5 siguro dahil sa summer vacation naging 7.6k!
    Sobra!

    Reply
  4. I totally agree with Sunil. Only in the Philippines! WTF!
    http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24809:ercs-ducut-in-cahoots-with-meralco&catid=28:opinion&Itemid=64
    It actually happened in March when Meralco increased by 91 centavos (actually P0.9114) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) your monthly electric charges, based on the claim that it was merely passing on what it had to pay to the power-generation companies. The basic rate of P4.70 per kWh thus became a little over P5.61 per kWh. This was followed in April by another hefty increase of 93 centavos per kWh, also purportedly to reflect an increase in the generation charge, making the basic electricity rate jump from P5.61 to P6.54! At P6.54 per kWh, the basic cost of electricity being paid for by Meralco’s 4.4 million customers in Metro Manila and the adjacent provinces (Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite and parts of Laguna and Quezon) is equivalent to 29 US cents.

    Reply
  5. Thanks for the links moks, we are hoping that the new administration after the election would do something about this. There would be 1000’s of new opportunities open up if the electricity rates come down.

    Reply
  6. Meralco is not owned by the Lopez’s(they said that it’s not Meralco’s fault the price goes up) but hey WAKEUP PINOY!!! EDC is owned by Lopez’s which supplies electricity to Meralco…hahaha. Good thing I bought EDC shares 26% gain already and no plans of selling it yet.
    http://www.gmanews.tv/story/190234/lopez-firm-edc-posts-p38b-in-1st-qtr-net-income
    Lopez firm EDC posts P3.8B in 1st qtr net income
    Lopez-owned Energy Development Corp. (EDC), a leading producer of geothermal energy, said its net income increased by 68 percent to P3.80 billion in the first three months of the year from P2.27 billion in the same period in 2009.
    Its earnings before income tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) also improved by 82 percent to P4.94 billion.
    EDC said improved revenues from its two subsidiaries – Green Core Geothermal Inc. (GCGI), operator of the 192.5-MW Palinpinon and the 112.5-MW Tongonan I geothermal power plants, and First Gen Hydro Power Corp. which operates the Pantabangan and Masiway hydroelectric plants, were the main drivers of the significant advances in net income and EBITDA in the first quarter, contributing P1.22 billion.
    The company’s core net income also soared to P3.2 billion, up by 103 percent from P1.6 billion. The marked improvement was driven by higher electricity sales from GCGI geothermal and Pantabangan-Masiway hydroelectric plants.
    “We’re off to a good start in 2010 given the performance of our subsidiary corporations. Knowing the pulse of our customers worked to our advantage. We are sensitive to their preference for clean, reliable, sustainable and affordable energy sources,” EDC president and COO Richard Tantoco said.
    Tantoco said “the pricing of the indigenous renewable energy resource that we offer our customers is independent of any indexation to movements in global energy indices. This was validated by the long-term contracts that we have already secured for the Palinpinon and Tongonan geothermal power plants.”
    This year, EDC is adding the 150-MW Bacon-Manito (BacMan) geothermal plant in Sorsogon to its portfolio of assets. It submitted the highest bid in the recently concluded auction for the government’s assets.
    “We are programming the rehabilitation of the BacMan power plants and bringing them back to their full capacity within 18 to 24 months. With our acquisition of the BacMan plants, our steamfield and power plant operations will be fully integrated in all our project sites. This will make our operations more efficient and our electricity production competitively priced,’’ Tantoco said.—VS, GMANews.TV

    Reply
  7. james,
    your bill is just P700 previously? how did that happen? no appliances besides lights and your laptop?
    sobrang baba ah!

    Reply
  8. I have this dorm and they said their Rate is General Power and now they are collecting monthly bill from us 6000k for a single room with AC…what the fvck! so above all the energy consumption, around P20.76 kwh is their charge! i want to know the rules regarding energy bills pls..

    Reply
  9. Hi
    Is there anyone here who are in same situation like ours and can give advice
    We actually have an apartment in Taguig rented out 7 years ago.
    The Lessee was caught having a jumper and run away with months unpaid electricity bill.
    My mother settled the bills and was informed about the illegal connection.
    We submitted a rental agreement and since we are living in Batangas we are not awarre of the illegal connection happened in our property.
    There were no further action taken aside from the docs submitted.
    Fast forward to 2017 we are applying for a new meter tbut was put on hold by Meralco
    telling us thre is a existing case referring to above.
    now we are asked to pay 1M as a penalty but we cannot afford that.
    We have submitted again notarized rental agreement and a proof that we are living in Batangas since then..
    Appreciate yany of your positive and informative feedback on how to handle forward this case.

    Reply

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