MANILA - Customers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will continue to pay less for their electricity bills as the power distributor slashed rates for the fifth straight month.

According to Meralco Vice President and Utility Economics Head Ivanna Dela Pena, the company has implemented an 8.2-centavo per kilowatthour rate reduction in its generation charge.

Dela Pena said the generation charge will now go down to P4.0166 per kWh this month from P4.0986 kWh in August. This would bring the total reduction in generation charge to P1 per kWh for the past 5 months.

"Generation charge has been on a general downward trend for the past months. And if we compare generation charge now from 5 months ago, it would register and accumulated P1 per kWh reduction," Dela Pena said.

Dela Pena attributed the drop in generation charge to higher trading volume at the country's wholesale electricity spot market (WESM).

Purchases from the WESM, at an effective rate of P2.4331 per kWh, rose to 15.8% in August from 8.8% in the previous month.

On the other hand, power sourced from the National Power Corp. fell to 30.4% from 36.2% in the same month last year.

The drop in generation charge alone, according to Dela Pena, will slash bills of residential customers consuming 100 kWh by P8. This, she said, will double at P16 for those consuming 200 kWh.

With the cumulative P1 per kWh cut in generation charges for the past 5 months, Meralco's residential customers are seen to pay as much as 15% lower in September compared to April 2009.