Meralco set to refund customers after high court TRO on rate hike

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is set to refund customers who have paid their bills reflecting higher power rates, on which the Supreme Court imposed a temporary restraining order (TRO) last Monday.

“For bills coming out starting December 23 to end-December, bills will already comply with the SC TRO, using the generation charge of P5.67/kwh. For customers who arlready paid before the SC TRO came out, adjustments will be made in subsequent bills in accordance with the final SC decision,” Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said in a text
message.

Customers who have received bills but have not settled the same will receive written notices on their “options,” Zaldarriaga said.

Meralco officials said the company would abide by the Supreme Court TRO and would refund customers that had paid for the generation rate increase (plus taxes and other related charges) in their December dues.

“We can easily refund,” Meralco COO Oscar S. Reyes said. Hopefully, Reyes said, issues will be resolved before the next billing cycle.

The country’s largest distribution utility also sought help from regulators on how to get “clarity” of its situation. However, the long-term solution to power price woes, Meralco officials said, was additional capacity through new power plants.

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla has summoned key officials of Meralco, power generation firms, and the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC), which operates the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) to a meeting on Thursday evening on how to implement the SC TRO.

“The Supreme Court TRO (temporary restraining order) must be implemented. I called the meeting to come up with an interim agreement and a way to share the costs, at least,” Petilla said.

Meralco normally collects the power generation and other pass-on charges automatically from customers and pays the same to its electricity suppliers. However, the Supreme Court issued a TRO on Monday which stopped Meralco (for 60 days) from collecting the increase in power generation and related pass-on charges. A complication arises as the distribution utility faces about P9 billion in dues to energy suppliers this month — of which about P6 billion is due on Thursday, Dec. 26., to PEMC. The rest are due to Meralco’s power suppliers with bilateral contracts.

According to energy experts, simply stopping Meralco from collecting the power hike, without additional intervention, could short circuit the energy market. If Meralco, unable to collect from customers, fails to pay dues to PEMC it could lose membership in the WESM. If this happens, Meralco would be unable to source power from the spot market as needed and that situation could result in power outages in Meralco areas.

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