Meralco mandated by ERC to refund almost PHP 7.8B worth of excess charges
The Energy Regulatory Commission has required Manila Electric Co to reimburse PHP 7.75 billion worth of excess collections to its customers.
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| File photo: Meralco logo |
PHP 93 refund for residential customers consuming 200 kWh
A bit of good news and relief for the customers of Meralco as they will receive a refund in a refund in the coming 12 months. Last month, the rates breached the P10-per-kilowatt-hour (kWh) mark.
In this second straight month of increases, it went up by P0.5363 to P10.1830 per kWh. Meralco explained that the generation charge would have been higher, if not for the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) order.
Back then, ERC instructed suppliers to defer portions of their generation costs, about PHP 945 million in total.
Now, the regulatory commission demanded that each Meralco customer get a reimbursement amounting to P0.47 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). This may be equivalent to PHP 93 for a residential customer with monthly consumption of 200 kWh.
According to Meralco, they will comply with ERC's order and assured customers that the refund will start this month of May.
The electric distributor assured customers it will comply with the regulatory agency’s order and the refund will start this month. Vice President for Communications of Meralco Joe Zaldarriaga send a message via Viber noting,
We confirm the receipt of the ERC's order dated March 8 on the refund of distribution-related charges totaling P7.8 billion.
The ERC issued the order at Meralco's request for temporary relief, stemming from its recomputation of the power distributor's regulatory asset base (RAB) covering 2012 to 2015. It eventually resulted in over-recovery or over-collection for that period.
Note that you will find the said refund as a separate line item in your upcoming power bill.
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