MANILA, Philippines — The Vitality Regulatory Fee (ERC) has cleared Manila Electrical Co. (Meralco) to refund its clients almost P13.9 billion over a two-year interval.
In an order, the ERC directed Meralco to refund a complete of P13.89 billion or equal to a mean refund of P0.1528 per kilowatt-hour to its clients inside roughly 24 months or till the quantity is totally refunded.
“The fee authorised Meralco’s prayer for the issuance of a provisional authority in an effort to enable their clients to right away get pleasure from the advantages of the proposed refund and supply instant price reduction particularly throughout this time of pandemic,” ERC chair and CEO Agnes Devanadera mentioned earlier than the weekend.
Earlier, Meralco, in its software, sought the ERC’s affirmation of its precise Weighted Common Tariff (AWAT) as in opposition to the ERC-approved Interim Common Fee (IAR) to find out if there may be any over or below restoration.
“As regulator of the electrical energy business, the Fee, in figuring out its actions on purposes filed earlier than it, has the buyer welfare as its main consideration, thus our determination to right away authorize the refund. We hope that the discount in price may assist our customers deal with the nonetheless ongoing pandemic,” Devanadera mentioned.
Meralco mentioned it’ll adjust to the ERC directive, however hopes that the ability regulator will lastly approve the subsequent Efficiency-based Regulation (PBR) reset.
“With the petition we filed, Meralco hopes to place the PBR mechanism again on monitor, that we recognize the provisional approval and that we’ll observe the order as this can present a lot wanted reduction to our clients,” Meralco vp for company communications Joe Zaldarriaga mentioned.
The ERC has but to approve the principles for the PBR of privately owned distribution utilities from July 2015 onwards, which is why Meralco used the IAR within the third regulatory interval from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2015.
The ERC mentioned the provisional authority solely covers the refund of the quantity as utilized by Meralco.
Aside from authorizing the refund as utilized, all different allegations, assumptions and computations made within the on the spot software are nonetheless topic to the ERC’s intensive analysis and pertinent guidelines on the matter.
The ERC additionally directed Meralco to replicate the refund as a separate line merchandise within the payments of its clients in the course of the refund interval.
The residential and normal service A class may have a refund of P0.2761 per kwh; normal service B with P0.1811 per kwh; normal energy with P0.0789 per kwh; GHMSCI with P0.1165 per kwh; flat streetlights P0.2870 per kwh and generator wheeling with P0.0366 per kwh.
In the meantime, ERC clarified that the refund is with out prejudice to the result of the ultimate analysis of the appliance after completion of each technical and authorized proceedings.
