MANILA, Philippines - After hikes in cooking gas and fuel prices, consumers must brace themselves for higher electricity bills this month.

Power distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) announced on Tuesday its generation charge for February will increase by 11 centavos to P5.57 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from P5.46/kWh last month.

According to Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga, the prices of power from all of the utility's sources have gone more expensive.

The Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), where Meralco got around 5% of its power needs, sold electricity for P4.29/kwh more than last month's rate.

Power from National Power Corp. and independent power producers also went up by P0.04/kWh and P0.16/kWh, respectively.

This means that those consuming 101 kWh of electricity per month, will see their bills go up by over P11, while those consuming P200 kWh will pay P22 more.

The Energy Regulatory Commission said it will check the reason behind the considerable spike in WESM prices. - Alvin Elchico, ABS-CBN News