MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) on Sunday said it would review the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) decision on its new distribution rate, which was lower than expected.
“While we have yet to receive a copy of the ERC’s decision on our 1st Regulatory Period rate reset application, we’ve seen the official statement and news reports indicating that the approved rates are lower than what we had applied for,” Meralco Senior Vice President Jose Ronald Valles said in a statement.
“We will need to thoroughly review the decision before commenting further on its impact on the company and our customers,” he added.
On Saturday, the ERC announced that it had finally approved the regulatory reset of Meralco for the first regulatory period, covering July 2026 until June 2030.
The regulator allowed Meralco to collect some P342 billion in revenue requirements over the four-year period, or 36-percent lower than the P532 billion the company had sought.
The ERC also announced an average distribution rate for regulatory year 2027 of P1.48 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), below Meralco’s P2.34 per kWh application. It was also lower than the rates proposed by other intervenors, which ranged between P1.60 and P1.98 per kWh.
Meralco’s current average distribution rate is P1.35 per kilowatt-hour.
Both the ERC and Meralco have yet to announce when the new rate will be applied.
Valles said the decision would allow Meralco to move forward with greater clarity as it pursues investments and initiatives to modernize its distribution network and enhance service delivery.
He said these investments were focused on advanced metering infrastructure, cybersecurity and other network modernization projects.
“We likewise appreciate the ERC’s commitment to resolving the long-pending rate reset application as this addresses outstanding regulatory matters and provides stability for the energy industry,” Valles said.
Meralco’s distribution rates were last reset in 2011 but, due to unresolved regulatory periods, were not reviewed again for more than a decade.
The company’s shares closed up P22.00, or 5.30 percent, to P437.00 apiece on Friday.