Meralco says prepaid electricity to become a hit to Filipino consumers

MANILA, Philippines - Prepaid electricity will be a hit to Filipino consumers, according to power distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

Meralco senior vice president for customer retail services and corporate communications Alfredo S. Panlilio said not only that prepaid electricity will provide a better management of electricity usage, Filipino consumers are not new to using prepaid cards.

“The Filipinos’ love affair with prepaid mobile is a powerful vehicle we will ride on, making the Philippine implementation somewhat unique versus the early adopters of the service,” Panlilio said.

He said they are optimistic that this edge will make the prepaid process of Meralco successful.

“What will make Meralco’s implementation different from those countries is our leveraging on the strength of prepaid telecoms in the Philippines,” he said.

Meralco is set to pilot the prepaid electricity process early next year.

Panlilio said the company is currently evaluating vendor proposals for systems to implement the service in line with the guidelines issued by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

Prepaid electricity has been in operation in countries like South Africa and Indonesia, and more recently in India, Australia and New Zealand. 

In South Africa and Indonesia, prepaid electricity is availed of by consumers using tokens and a meter with numbered keys where a code is punched in.

The purchase of Meralco prepaid electricity will be the same experience as mobile loading.

“A consumer provides the store his subscriber information number and the store loads that number via text. The consumer then gets a confirmation text, his meter is loaded, and electricity is immediately provided. When the load is running low, the consumer also gets a warning text, approximately four days before electricity is cut off,” the Meralco official said.

Households who find prepaid a better system to match their income with their expenses will like this service as it makes control of expenses simple. For houses with multiple families, the sharing of electricity costs is also made easy. Lessors and lessees are also potential customers since the prepaid service eliminates the persistent issue of lessees leaving behind bills.

“We also know good use cases with local government units, corporations, and small and medium scale enterprises. Government units who want to adhere to strict budgetary guidelines or companies who want to separate corporate-use facilities versus staff and personal-use areas may want to use prepaid,” Panlilio noted.

Panlilio said Meralco continues to explore all other ways to implement the prepaid electricity scheme.

“We are studying all these possibilities to provide our customers with options to suit their needs,” he added.

He said the prepaid process that they will implement will be fit to Filipino consumers’ lifestyle.

“We continue to understand our customers better, scan innovations around the world and adapt them Filipino-style to be of better service and relevance here.”