Meralco addresses bill shock

MANILA, Philippines — Besieged with complaints of having overcharged its customers at the height of the Luzon-wide quarantine, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has assured the public that its meter readings are accurate and that spikes in electricity bills may have been due to higher power consumption of families forced to stay home.

Meralco made the clarification after being asked by the Department of Energy (DOE) to explain customers’ complaints that their electricity bills had become
 unreasonably high.

The power distributor said it suspended meter-reading activities in compliance with the government’s quarantine measures. Electricity consumption will instead be estimated based on average consumption for the past three months in compliance with the rules prescribed by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

Meralco said the three months – December 2019, January 2020 and February 2020 – that were used as basis for the March and April bills were considered “low consumption” months as these were significantly cooler months compared to the summer months of March, April and May.

“As part of the ECQ period, some March and all April bills were estimated based on the past three months’ average daily consumption, following the Distribution Services and Open Access Rules (DSOAR) issued by the ERC,” Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said in a statement.

Stuck inside their homes amid the summer heat, Meralco said many of its clients had to switch on air-conditioning units and electric fans to stay cool.

“So, appliances are usually switched on most of the time throughout the day, especially appliances like fans and air-conditioners. Air-conditioners, which most households would use six to eight hours per day before quarantine, could be used for 12 to 24 hours per day during the quarantine. Also, temperatures are currently at a record high, leading to higher use of cooling devices,” Zaldarriaga said.

But starting May 4, Meralco started redeploying meter readers, allowing the power distributor to record the actual consumption of customers.

The May bill is a result of the actual kilowatt-hour (kwh) consumption from the current meter reading, with adjustments already reflected from the previous estimated consumption.

“Of course, it is important to note that to ease customers’ burden of having bills pile up, unpaid bills with due date from March 1 to May 15, 2020 (bill date from Feb 21 to May 6) will be converted to four equal monthly installments,” Zaldarriaga said.

“Meralco promises to provide all the possible options for the utmost convenience of the consumer, bringing back a sense of normalcy and security in this time of uncertainty and turmoil, with the pandemic still affecting us all,” he said.

Explanation sought

At a virtual meeting yesterday, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said the agency has received a lot of complaints from consumers regarding their Meralco electricity bills.

“We’re not passing any conclusions. We’re still waiting for that reply but we are aware of the complaints being raised,” he said.

The issue was also covered at a meeting between the DOE and the ERC.

“That was covered by the meeting also with the ERC earlier because the issue we’re seeing is what are the interpretations of advisories,” DOE Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said.

“We’ll just make sure that the interpretation of Meralco and other distribution utilities are in line with ours,” he said.

A report will be presented to the Joint Congressional Energy Commission (JCEC) – the country’s primary watchdog in the power sector – on May 21 to align interpretations of DOE and ERC advisories.

The ERC and DOE directed all distribution utilities and retail electricity suppliers  to defer customer electricity bills falling due within the enhanced community quarantine “without interest, penalties, fees and other charges.”

The regulators also ordered them to stagger the payment of electricity bills for up to four months.

Meanwhile, Meralco is filing criminal charges against a certain Joven Salarda for posting fake news on his Facebook account, implying that his friend’s single household electricity bill skyrocketed to P1.773 million.

His post alleged that the bill was for a five-story home and included a photo of the Meralco bill. Upon verification, the bill was actually for an account owned by SM Development Corp. (SMDC), a corporate account that has 1,364 services assigned to it.

The story racked up almost 20,000 shares and solicited malicious attacks against Meralco.

Salarda then posted conflicting updates on his original post, all of which were then eventually taken down.

Meralco is set to initiate the filing of cases against Salarda (or the person behind the account name) for violations of Unlawful Use of Means of Publication and Unlawful Utterances under Article 154 of the Revised Penal Code as Amended in relation to Section 4(4) (Online Libel) and Section 6 of Republic Act No. 10175, the Anti-Cybercrime Law.

The company will file parallel complaints with NBI’s Cybercrime Division and PNP’s Anti-Cybercrime Unit.

“There is never a right time especially now that we are in a very challenging situation to be a purveyor of fake news and to spread malicious content online, when we should be united in fighting a pandemic,” Meralco SVP and head of legal and corporate governance William Pamintuan said.

“Spreading misinformation at the expense of others puts the public at risk and even hamper operations of critical institutions such as Meralco,” Pamintuan said.

Meralco is also advising customers against posting their electricity bills online, as such documents contain sensitive information that can be misused by cyber criminals.