Customers of Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will have to brace for an increase in the power rates for the month of September after two consecutive months of reduction.

In an advisory on Thursday, Meralco said the overall rate for a typical household was hiked by 39.07 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kWh) this month to PHP 9.9365/kWh from PHP 9.5458/kWh in August.

The rate adjustment means an additional payment of PHP 78 per 200 kWh.

Meralco said that higher fuel cost and weaker peso caused the generation charge to go up. It said that generation charge for September increased by 35.81 centavos to PHP 6.9393/kWh from PHP 6.5812/kWh in the prior month.

The generation charge covers the cost of power purchased by the company from its suppliers, such as independent power producers (IPPs), power producers with power supply agreements (PSAs), and the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM).

Meralco also explained charges from IPPs and PSAs climbed by PHP 0.8026 and PHP 0.3316 per kWh, respectively, partly due to fuel price hikes.