ERC-ordered refund to wipe out expected rate increase in July

Consumers will hardly feel the looming increase in their electricity bills this July due to the refund that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) ordered Meralco to give, according to a report by Joseph Morong on "24 Oras."

The amount of refund is around P21.8 billion covering distribution-related charges that Meralco customers paid from July 2015 to June 2022.

Meralco customers consuming at least 200 kilowatt hour per month is expected to get around P174 in refund or P0.87 per kwh.

The ERC said the refund would be implemented in the next billing cycle from Meralco’s receipt of the decision.

“Ang ERC pagnagcocompute ng rates yun eh projected, assumptions mga estimates lang ang pinagbabatayan. After a certain period ang ERC babalikan niya ang kanyang projection, pag nakita nila yan kadalasan nagkakaroon ng diperensya, hindi naman talaga overcharging,” ERC chairperson Agnes Devanadera said.

(The ERC's computation of rates is projected and assumptions are based only on estimates. After a certain period, the ERC will return to its projection, when they see that there is usually a discrepancy and not really overcharging.)

“Sobra, dapat pambigas na yung existing na binayaran ko,” Meralco customer Lucille Corpus said.

Meralco estimates that the refund will take up to 12 months.

“Pipilitin natin mapatupad yan ngayong buwan kasi sa estimate namin tatagal ng 12 months itong refund na ito,” Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said.

(We will try to start the refund this month, as per our estimate, it could take up to 12 months.)

“The P0.87/kWh will effectively wipe out whatever increase that may be forthcoming,” he said.

The ERC said this is the fourth refund directive since January 2021 following the P13.9 billion as per order dated January 27, 2021; P4.8 billion as per supplemental order dated February 23, 2022; P7.7 billion as per order dated March 8, 2022 (covered by various other cases); and P21.8 billion as per decision dated June 16, 2022.

The Meralco official said they expected that the price of electricity would increase due to the limited supply and yellow alert warning.

The Philippine peso depreciated further against the US dollar for the third straight day on Thursday to close at the P56:$1 level, also adding to the 

“Hopefully, kung wala naman magaganap na masyadong mga yellow at red alert at hindi masyadong matitrigger yung secondary price cap. Syempre hopefully, mas okay yung presyuhan sa spot market, and similarly and hopefully the price that will be sold to us by the generators will be lower,” Zaldarriaga added.

(Hopefully, there won't be too many yellow and red alerts to trigger the  secondary price cap. Of course hopefully, the price in the spot market is better.)

The ERC called on the public to conserve electricity amid the ongoing tension between Ukraine and Russia, which caused the rise in crude oil prices and weakening of the Philippine peso.

“Yung pagtaas ng kuryente wala s? control ng national government,” Devanadera said.

(The increase in electricity price is beyond the control of the national government.)—Richa Noriega/LDF, GMA News