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POWER
customers within Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco)
franchise area can now opt to purchase electricity at
cheaper rates, after the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC)
approved the country’s largest power distributor’s
time-of-use (TOU) rates application.
TOU
rates refer to an alternative pricing scheme that
roughly reflects the true cost of electricity, generally
consisting of the peak and the off-peak periods.
Peak
periods are hours of the day where the demand for
electricity is high, but peak and off-peak periods also
vary between weekdays and weekends, and also vary
between the wet season, which is July to December, and
dry season, which is January to June.
“We have
provisionally approved Meralco’s petition as [they]
applied,” Rodolfo B. Albano Jr., ERC chairman, told
reporters.
Meralco
filed with the ERC the application for the approval of
its proposed TOU retail rates to end-users in April 16,
where the TOU rates will be implemented on a voluntary
basis in different phases.
Under
Meralco’s petition, the first phase will cover
industrial and non-industrial customers with a monthly
average peak demand of at least 750 kilowatts for the
preceding 12 months, and to residential customers with a
12-month average consumption of at least 2,000
kilowatt-hours, prior to the date of their application
for TOU rates.
In the
second phase, on the other hand, the level will be
reduced to 1,000 kilowatt-hours for residential
customers, and thereafter the succeeding phases will be
proposed depending on the result of the implementation
of the first and second phases.
Under
Meralco’s application, the TOU rate for peak hours is
P6.4852 a kilowatt-hour from Monday to Sunday in the
months of January to June, and P6.1053 a kilowatt-hour
in the months of July to December as against an off-peak
rate of P3.0925 a kilowatt-hour.
Meralco
said the adoption of the TOU pricing scheme aims to
provide end-users with the price signals on the
efficient use of generation facilities and gives an
incentive for customers to shift load from peak to
off-peak periods because of the price differential.
Meralco
said the implementation of TOU rates will require
acquisition and installation of electricity meters with
time stamping capability or “TOU-programmable” meters,
and these types of meters are estimated at P8,200 per
meter including programming cost.
“The
meter is something to be procured by Meralco or each
individual who is going to buy these meters, which will
be either procured by the consumer or by Meralco in an
installment basis, and deposits will no longer be
required,” Albano said.
The
meter-reading aspect necessitates reprogramming of the
device to capture readings at different TOU time zones,
and that new meter-reading skills need to be developed.
Meralco
said electric bills of those who will avail of the TOU
rates should be redesigned or reformatted to be able to
reflect the information on kilowatt-hour use by time
zones, and the TOU rates will also require enhancements
to the computerized billing system to accommodate
additional processing and storage of more data. |
