Meralco prepaid customers seen to hit 100 K by year-end

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) expects its prepaid customers to surge to 100,000 by year-end amid growing demand for the service, a ranking company official said.

Meralco has activated 76,763 prepaid customers under the Kuryente Load (KLoad) program as of end-September.

It has also noted an increase in average per capita monthly consumption of prepaid metering accounts from 113 kilowatt-hours (kwh) in December 2016 to 132 kwh as of September this year.

“We’re pushing very hard in prepaid electricity. Hopefully, we’ll reach the 100,000 mark by the end of the year,” Meralco senior vice president Alfredo Panlilio said.

Meralco has secured an initial rollout of 40,000 prepaid meters and a second wave of 100 prepaid meters from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

It has a pending application with the ERC to roll out 235,000 smart meters.

Panlilio earlier said the new application would cover a mix of prepaid and postpaid smart meters, with prepaid meters taking up a bigger allocation since the product is already developed.

Aside from Manila, Pasig and parts of Rizal, KLoad is now also available in Mandaluyong, and will soon reach Makati.

By the end of 2017, Meralco plans to bring KLoad to Quezon City, Caloocan, San Juan, Marikina, Pateros, Taguig and Pasay.

The rollout of prepaid meters is part of the power distributor’s automation of its network, Meralco president Oscar Reyes said earlier.

Meralco is targeting half of its total customers to shift to smart meters in the next eight years. So far, it has a customer base of 6.25 million accounts.

The prepaid meter system allows customers to monitor their electricity consumption, allowing them to budget their consumption and expenses. It will also enable them to monitor their electricity consumption as it happens.

Based on Meralco’s consumer research, customers who shifted from postpaid to prepaid are able to effectively monitor their consumption daily via SMS and as a result, save an average 20 percent on electricity consumption, translating to total savings of around P300 per customer.