Customers of Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will experience minor pinch in their electricity bills this July as the utility firm’s generation charge climbed slightly by P0.058 per kilowatt hour (kWh) to P5.6547 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from last billing month’s P5.5967 per kWh.

The main trigger for the increase in its generation charge component had been the P0.06 per kWh jump in supply billed by its contracted supply from power producers, according to Meralco first vice president Ivanna G. dela Pena.

Generation charge is a pass-through cost that distribution utilities collect from their customers based on payments made to power suppliers. There is monthly adjustment in the bills based on policy set by the Energy Regulatory Commission.

For the supply billed by state-run National Power Corporation to its Luzon customers, including Meralco, it was noted that cost components in its generation charge have been up by average P0.3160 per kWh for the May 26-June 25 billing cycle.

The impact of which was subsequently carried into the bills of customers this July.

The adjustment this July is almost uneventful as compared to the sudden spikes experienced by Meralco customers at the peak of summer months when Luzon grid also experienced supply constraints due to the simultaneous maintenance shutdowns of power plants compounded by the strike of El Niño phenomenon.