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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Regulatory issues delay Meralco’s prepaid services

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Manila Electric Co.’s prepaid retail electricity service hit a snag amid the delay in the issuance of the advance integrated metering rules, an executive said.

Meralco so far installed 105,000 to 108,000 smart meters, but was hoping to roll out three million smart meters by 2023.

“We intend to finish up the 40,000 this year, but the filings we’ve given the last three years have not been decided on, totaling to about a million meters,” said Meralco senior vice president and head of customer retail services and corporate communication Al Panlilio.

Panlilio said the first step should be the issuance of the AMI business rules and approval of Meralco’s pending filings on the smart meters with the Energy Regulatory Commission. 

“We are waiting for that. Those are AMI rules, not only for prepaid but also postpaid smart meters,” he said.

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He said Meralco also uses the same smart meters for postpaid customers who want to shift to prepaid.

He said postpaid customers often receive “bill shock”, thus they have the option to shift to prepaid once the rules are approved. 

“With smart meters, you will see your daily consumption and we are also developing an app,” Panlilio said.

He said the company received approval to roll out only 140,000 smart meters. 

“We have 6.5 million customers…By 2023 we will have three million under the plan we submitted to ERC,” he said.

Meralco is offering the prepaid service under Kuryente Load.

Meralco’s prepaid electricity allows customers to monitor electricity consumption through mobile phone SMS notifications and manage electricity expenses with budget-friendly load denominations for as low as P100. 

Kuryente Load runs on the latest “smart” meters which allow Meralco to detect outages instantly, allowing for faster power restoration in times of need.

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