Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has warned its customers to prepare for an increase in their electricity bills for June due to higher pass-through charges. 

In a statement, Joe R. Zaldarriaga, Meralco spokesperson said these charges will consist of a rise in transmission costs and an increase in the feed-in tariff (FIT) allowance.

In light of the tight supply conditions in the Luzon grid recorded last month, Meralco also expects a corresponding increase in the generation charge.

“To cushion the impact of the rate increase to our customers, Meralco initiated the coordination with its suppliers to defer a portion of their generation costs,” Zaldarriaga said on Tuesday, June 11.

The deferred costs are proposed to be collected on a staggered basis for a period of three months or from June to August.

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said it has no objections to the proposed mitigating measure.

In addition, Meralco also asked the ERC to defer the collection of a portion of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) charges. 

In response, the ERC asked Meralco and issued an Order to all distributors in Luzon and Visayas, to wait for the final billing from the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) before issuing the June bills.

The final billing, according to the regulator, is expected to be lower than the preliminary billing as this would reflect the implementation of administered pricing and secondary price cap in the WESM during the last supply month.

“Meralco will comply with this directive and will wait for IEMOP’s adjusted billing before computing the final rates for June and issuing the bills to our customers,” Zaldarriaga said.

“With this, we also advise our customers to expect a slight delay in the delivery of their bills. We would like to give the assurance that these efforts are meant to mitigate the impact of the expected rate increase to all our customers,” he concluded.