Meralco offers discount to ind’l customers

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has approved P22.3-million worth of discount as of end-August 2003 to its 101 industrial customers under the Special Program to Enhance Electricity Demand (SPEED).

Meralco head for power analysis and power accounts Mario C. Minas, in an interview with The STAR, said "there are about 224 customers of Meralco who can avail of the program but so far only 101 customers have been able to get the discount."

Minas said customers who availed of the SPEED were able to have an average deduction of three percent on their total electricity bills.

He said the first batch of the customers came from the big industrial customers like in the semiconductors and cement industries.

According to Minas, they have started to offer the second phase of the program to include commercial customers last August 2003.

By next month, the company is expected to provide discount to both industrial and commercial customers with 500 kW consumption.

In July this year, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) ordered Meralco to implement a 12-centavo per kilowatthour (kWh) discount on incremental electricity usage of its customers.

SPEED is part of the 10-point plan of the Arroyo administration crafted last year to reduce power rates.

Specifically, the program is aimed at encouraging the increase in the usage of existing power plants in the grids. Effectively, this program reduces average power costs for large electricity end-users, both industrial and commercial.