THE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is looking forward for the approval of 100,000 more prepaid electricity meters, following the approval of a previous batch of 40,000 meters recently approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
Meralco Senior Vice President Alfredo Panlilio said there are already takers for the 40,000 approved meters. “We filed for 100,000 more, so that more can apply,” he said in a text message.
The utility firm has so far received 20,000 applications for its prepaid retail electric service (Pres). The said service will be initially available in some parts of Manila, Cainta, Quezon City, San Juan, Caloocan, Pasig and Cavite.
Panlilio said that, aside from the residential customers, the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) are also interested to enroll in Meralco’s Pres. The NHA alone, he said, is interested to apply up to 40,000 meters for its housing projects.
“The service will be offered to other areas…,” said Panlilio, adding that “other local government units, such as San Juan, Mandaluyong, Las Piñas and Quezon City, are also interested.”
Meralco has 5.63 million customers as of end-March.
Pres shall be offered on a voluntary basis. To avail himself of the service, a customer may go to any of Meralco’s business center and pay an initial consumable load of P200. Meralco will not require a bill deposit.
Pres customers may purchase load in denominations of P100, P200, P300, P500 and P1,000. The customer will receive a top-up confirmation from their mobile phones.
On a daily basis, Pres customers will receive a free short message service (SMS) informing them of their remaining prepaid amount. The customer will also receive a warning via SMS three days before estimated depletion of load and disconnection.
Based on the Pres rules, customers will be allowed to experience Pres on a trial basis for six months. Thereafter, they may continue to avail themselves of the Pres or revert to postpaid.
On rates, the ERC ruled that retail rates shall be the effective postpaid retail rate at the particular month the credited load was consumed. At the end billing period, there will be a true-up or monthly adjustment of the customer’s expenditures to reflect the actual rate applicable to the customer based on consumption for that particular billing period. Any change in the tier on the default prepaid rate shall require the ERC approval.
“Meralco shall use the postpaid rate applicable to customers consuming 201 to 300 kilowatt-hour until its system can implement a dynamic prepaid pricing, where the customer’s default prepaid rate for a particular billing period shall be the rate of the immediately preceding billing period of the said customer,” the ERC said.
“At the time of the true-up, in case the remaining balance of the customer is no longer sufficient to cover the deficit, Meralco shall inform the customer in order to allow him to load the necessary amount within 48 hours before implementing the true-up and actual disconnection,” the ERC added.
The utility firm is also required to submit to the ERC a report on the implementation of its Pres one year from approval.
Meralco on Friday said it welcomes the ERC approval to implement the Pres, which allows customers to monitor and control their consumption through daily balance notifications and save up to 20 percent in electricity expenses.
The ERC decision, dated April 27, states that Meralco’s application is compliant with the provisions of the Pres rules mandated by the ERC. Included in this decision is an affirmation that:
• Meralco will use an Advanced Metering Infrastructure Integrated Solution, a system that allows customers to monitor their electricity consumption, balance, loading history and account information;
• Meralco’s prepaid metering system is capable of interoperating with different brands of meter;
• the meters to be used, which are, likewise, compliant and type-approved to standards of the American National Standards Institute, will be provided by Meralco and shall be tested and sealed by the ERC prior to their installation in service.