‘Off peak’ scheme allows Meralco customers to save up to P164M

State-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor) has reported that about 29 of its bulk-power customers were able to save more than P164 million in their electricity bills as a result of Time-Of-Use (TOU) scheme.

The power firm’s TOU program is a billing system which encourages end-users to shift their electricity utilization towards the "off-peak" hours, when power rates are at their cheapest.

Based on Napocor documents submitted to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) the savings were realized for the billing periods covering November 2004 through April 2005.

In April alone, savings from the TOU system stood at P25.85 million.

Under the TOU scheme, Napocor bills its customers using flexible hourly rates that are lowest during off-peak hours ( from 10:00 pm to 7:00 a.m. the following day) and highest during peak hours (from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.).

TOU rates are also generally higher from Mondays to Saturdays (as compared to Sundays and holidays), and from July to December, when the climate is generally cooler.

According to Napocor, it had offered the TOU rates beginning November 2004 to encourage directly-connected customers to shift their electricity consumption from peak to off-peak hours, and thus improve Napocor’s system load factor.

Last April, the Energy Regulatory Commission ordered all power distributors to implement a TOU rate schedule for their customers, which include ordinary households.

"We are urging residential end-users to avail of the TOU program once this is offered by their respective cooperatives or distribution utilities because this will really reduce their monthly electricity bills," Napocor president Cyril C. del Callar said.

Del Callar said "based on our own experience with our TOU program, our customers were able to realize hefty savings from the TOU rates."

The Napocor chief cited as example Napocor’s TOU rates in April 2005, which stood at P3.0823 per kilowatt-hour, or P0.1293 per kWh lower than the average rate of P3.2116 per kWh.

"Given that the energy demand of our customers runs into thousands of megawatts, a 13-centavo price difference can translate into millions of pesos in savings for them," he said.

Among those who were able to realize the biggest savings from the TOU billing scheme in April were: the Visayan Electric Co. Inc., the biggest utility in the Visayas region (P8.63 million); TIPCO Estates Corp., developer and operator of the 63.84-hectare TECO Special Economic Zone in Mabalacat, Pampanga (P5.32 million); Northern Cement Corp. (P2.94 million); Continental Operating Corp. (P2.44 million); and Taiheiyo Cement Phils. Inc. (P2.09 million).