Meralco prepaid customers top 95,000

By Myrna M. Velasco – August 25, 2018, 10:00 PM
from Manila Bulletin

Meralco logo
/Manila Bulletin

The level of prepaid electricity connections served by the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) under its “Kuryente Load” (KLoad) brand is now inching close to 100,000; with customers availing of it already reaching 95,731 as of June this year.

Beyond that, the distribution utility firm noted that it still has pending application with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for additional 235,000 prepaid retail electricity system (PRES) meters.

However, proceedings on its next PRES meters application have been stalling due to suspension predicament of top-level ERC officials as well as the void set off by the retirement of the two other Commissioners. Malacañang has yet to appoint the replacements of former Commissioners Alfredo J. Non and Victoria Yap-Taruc.

Prepaid electricity is an alternative that the utility firm has been offering, mainly to residential end-users, who are keen on efficiently managing their power consumption on budget that befits them.The power utility firm pioneered KLoad offers in some parts of Rizal; then Manila and Pasig.

Targeted expansion areas for the service offer would be San Juan, Marikina, Caloocan, Quezon City, Pateros, Pasay and Taguig.

Until year 2019, according to Meralco Senior Vice President Alfredo S. Panlilio, the company is eyeing to apply for 1,005,000 prepaid electricity meters so the service can be extended to wider base of interested customers.

After the 235,000 PRES meters, Meralco is still intending to seek approval for additional 340,000 prepaid connections within this year; and heftier 430,000 connections in 2019.

In terms of power consumption in the prepaid electricity service domain, the utility firm emphasized that it went up to 165,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) as of June 2018, and that had been 6.5-percent higher compared to last year in the same month.

The residential sector is a continually expanding service dominion for the country’s more than a hundred-year-old power utility firm – logging a growth rate of about 6.0-percent on consumption “due to new accounts and the ramp-up from accounts energized in 2017.”

At present, Meralco’s total customer base stands at 6.5 million end-users; with new connections across customer-classes expanding by 294,000 by mid-year of 2018.

The utility firm stressed that new connections account for a rough average of 23,000 new customers per month, with the residential sector registering the highest share.

Meralco said “the municipalities of Rosario and San Pedro in the provinces of Cavite and Laguna, respectively, as well as the cities of Alabang, Muntinlupa, Taguig. Las Pinas and Paranaque, contributed the highest growth in residential energy sales volume.”

It added that “new customers, higher temperatures and inflation continue to be the drivers for residential volumes.”