The House of Representatives’ Makabayan bloc recently filed a measure asking the House Committee on Energy to investigate in aid of legislation the sudden increase in Manila Electric Co. bills amid the Covid-19 pandemic. “Several media reports quoted electric consumers complaining about their Meralco bills that have tripled or, for some, even quadrupled, despite their present low consumption,” the proponents said.
The lawmakers must have filed House Resolution 879 in haste because they failed to include customers’ complaints in other parts of the country.
In Bolinao, Pangasinan, for example, one customer complained that her electric bill surged to P23,000 for the months of April and May when she usually only pays P6,000 per month. The Pangasinan I Electric Cooperative Inc., however, explained that the bill was an average, where the April billing was based on January to March 2020 consumption in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to all electric cooperatives in the country.
Camarines Sur residents also complained of high electricity bill charges. A consumer said he was charged more than P16,000, but the Camarines Sur Electric Cooperative III insisted there were no problems with the charges, which were based on the customer’s average November 2019 to February 2020 billings.
Up north, the Provincial Board asked the Cagayan 1 Electric Cooperative, Inc. to explain spiking electric bills during the quarantine period, which were also based on the January to March 2020 consumption in accordance with the ERC’s order.
The ERC guidelines allowed power utilities to bill customers based on average consumption from December to February because meter reading could not be done due to the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon. The ERC said the difference with actual consumption would be settled in future bills.
We can’t fault the ERC for coming out with such guidelines, which, we believe, were formulated with the best of intentions. The problem with billing customers based on average consumption in the past three months when all establishments were ordered shut, except for essential services, is the fact that a computer shop, for example, will get a billing based on average consumption notwithstanding the fact that the business was ordered closed by the government.
To redress the situation, the ERC issued new guidelines that ordered utility distributors to issue new electric bills based on actual meter reading. Meralco said on Monday it will issue another bill based on actual reading, which will cover the months of March, April and May. Consumers won’t need to pay the electric bills from March 1 to May 31 that they received, which was based on estimated average since physical reading was suspended during the lockdown, said Meralco Spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga.
He added: “If the public has questions regarding our meter reading or bills, they can always call the Meralco hotline 16211 or visit the company’s social- media accounts, for clarification. No need to succumb to fake news and emotional outbursts in social media that only serve to inflame the issue.”
Amid complaints of high electricity bills in May, is there a way the “bill shock” could have been avoided?
Victor Genuino, Meralco vice president and head of Customer Retail Services and Corporate Communications, said technology should have been the answer to the meter reading estimation and bill shock woes of Meralco, or any distribution utility. “If we have smart meters in place, we don’t need to estimate the consumption during the quarantine period and we no longer need to send meter readers out because we will be able to determine customers’ consumption via remote reading,” he said.
Meralco rolled out its smart meter program in 2015, starting with prepaid meters within its franchise area. The prepaid meter system allows customers to monitor their electricity consumption based on their budget. Meralco’s consumer research showed that customers who shifted from postpaid to prepaid are able to monitor their consumption daily via SMS and as a result, they can save an average of 20 percent on electricity consumption. In March 2017, Meralco asked the approval of the ERC to roll out more prepaid meters and to implement its Advanced Metering Infrastructure. Regulatory lag, however, has slowed down Meralco’s program to automate its massive power distribution network.