Meralco customers to get refund

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) will refund consumers with P1.2 billion in over-recovery and over-collection of universal charges (UC) in the March billing as ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

In a text message, Meralco head of utility economics Lawrence Fernandez said the power firm received separate orders from the ERC to refund consumers for the over recovery of P657 million and P545 million over collection of UC beginning this March.

“The first is the result of a confirmation process, which includes public hearings, of pass-through charges from 2012 to 2013. For some rate components, there were under-recoveries while there were over-recoveries for others. After reconciliation by ERC, it was determined that there was a net over-recovery, which will be refunded over three months,” Fernandez explained.

Consumers will be refunded P0.05 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for a period of three months. They will also get P0.14 per kWh in UC refund this month.

Fernandez said the refunds are expected to mitigate any rate increase this month, which is attributed to a higher generation charge.

Meralco said the overall rate would increase by P0.0278 per kWh from last month’s P8.8623 per kWh to P8.8901 per kWh this month. This is lower than the P10.4961 per kWh rate in March 2019.

The rate increase is equivalent to a P6 increase in the total bill of residential customers consuming 200 kWh.

Last month, Meralco rates decreased by P0.59 per kWh to P8.70 per kWh, marking the second consecutive month of downward reduction as a result of lower generation charge.