Meralco sees more customers shifting to RE  

MANILA, Philippines —  Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is seeing an increase in electricity customers shifting to renewable energy use.

Meralco senior vice president and chief revenue officer Ferdinand Geluz said the company to date has 8,544 net metering customers with 50.3 megawatt peak (MWp) installed capacity.

Geluz said the net metering numbers and capacity are increasing year-on-year.

“Our net metering allows our customers to install a renewable energy facility within their premises, with a capacity of up to 100 kilowatts (kW), and get credits from the excess electricity that they export back to Meralco,” Geluz said.

“For the whole of 2022, these customers exported 20.3 gigawatt hours (GWh), while as of July this year, 16.2 GWh in energy export was already generated and can be projected to exceed last year’s aggregate number,” he said.

Geluz said aside from helping customers manage electricity, Meralco provides solutions that allow customers to participate in nation building through the adoption of sustainable practices.

The net metering program allows customers of distribution utilities, such as house or building, to install an on-grid renewable-based system not exceeding 100 kW in capacity so they can generate electricity for their own use.

Any electricity generated that is not consumed by the customer is automatically exported to the distribution utility’s distribution system.

The distribution utility then gives a peso credit for the excess electricity received equivalent to the utility’s blended generation cost, excluding other generation adjustments, and deducts the credits earned to the customer’s electric bill.

“For zero-export, our customers use the electricity generated by their renewable energy facility for their own consumption, and Meralco ensures that there are no inadvertent energy exported through its lines to safeguard its crew, as well as other electrical customers,” Geluz said.

Meralco currently has 50 zero export customers in its franchise with 26.5 MW installed capacity.

Geluz said Meralco has likewise started offering Distributed Energy Resources (DER) solutions to its customers in compliance with the DER Rules released by the Energy Regulatory Commission in October last year.

Renewable DER for consumption and export is available for renewable energy installations greater than 100 kWp up to one MWp, provided that the maximum capacity to export shall not exceed 30 percent of the nameplate capacity of the DER, according to the Meralco official.

“Achieving net zero is such an enormous task and can only be accomplished through collaborative efforts of nearly everyone. We recognize that we still have a long way to go in helping the country achieve net zero by 2050. But the journey starts with one step,” Geluz said.