Customers of Manila Electric Co. and other distribution utilities across the Philippines have a right to complain about their high electric billings at the height of the lockdown period. But outrightly blaming Meralco, the DUs and electric cooperatives seems to be misguided.
The Energy Regulatory Commission, according to advocacy group Laban Konsyumer Inc., is mainly responsible for the steep rise in billings because of the confusing advisories it issued to electricity retailers. LKI president Victorio Mario Dimagiba wrote to Rep. Lord Alan Velasco, chairman of the Committee on Energy in Congress, during the July 2 2020 public hearing on electricity bills that “the bill shock occurred and happened partly due to an ambiguous advisories issued by the Energy Regulatory Commission.”
Dimagiba said “consumers could have been relieved of this additional burden if there was no ambiguity of the advisory on ESTIMATE BILL and the lack of implementing details of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).”
“If there was more clarity in the guidelines and advisories of the regulator, the confusion and stress consumers are feeling now with their electricity bills may have been avoided,” he said.
The estimate bill phrase was the clear culprit that precipitated the high billings charged on electricity customers. It referred to the three months of actual consumption prior to the lockdown, or from November 2019 to March 15, 2020.
“Even when the consumers shut down his work office or simply stayed home, the ‘estimate’ bills for March and April 2020 will show a higher kWh consumption as the months of November 2019 to February 2020 were peaked months in kWh usages primarily due to the long traditional holidays of the country,” says Dimagiba.
“As we had learned, when the May 2020 bills were issued, the kwh consumption shot up as these included the March and April 2020 estimate consumption computed in accordance with… ambiguous ERC advisories. The adjustments of the kwh consumption made the whole process circuitous.”
With a mere general guideline from the ERC, electricity retailers proceeded to implement the directive from the state regulator.
“Our group believes that the lack of implementing details created confusion and lack of clarity provided to the distribution utilities and electric cooperatives all around the Philippines. These DUs and ECs nationwide were left to implement their own estimation without any clear details or guidelines by the ERC, and this may have brought about confusion both on the end of the DUs and ECs, and also on the part of the consumers,” says Dimagiba.
The ERC, the consumer advocate adds, should be accountable to the consumers following the ambiguous advisory, just “as ERC warned and issued Show Cause Orders on all DUs and ECs to comply with their directives.”
Electricity retailers were at a loss on how to present or justify the ‘estimate bill’ to consumers simply because the ERC did not spell out the details of its directive. The retailers complied with the advisory “to the best of their ability but without solid and granular directions.”
“Only in the Joint Committee on Energy meeting did Meralco present a 2-step process to understand our bills. Yet, that Meralco presentation can hardly cascade to the understanding of the bulk of residential customers of Meralco,” says Dimagiba.
The Alyansa ng mga Grupong Haligi ng Agham Teknolohiya para sa Mamayan, or AGHAM, shared a similar sentiment.
Group president Angelo Palmones asked the government and regulator to take a deeper, more comprehensive look into the country’s shared experience of higher electricity bills.
“This is not an issue being faced only by NCR, or by DUs like Meralco alone. Consumers all around the country are seeking a better understanding of their bills, and perhaps for ways that government and regulator can ease the burden on consumers by also assessing the other electric cooperatives as well.”
Meralco, meanwhile, tried to ease the pain of customers, apologizing for the bill shock and also assured customers it would waive the P47 convenience fee for online payments and refund any overcharging.
Meralco president and chief executive officer Ray Espinosa told the Senate committee on energy that the utility was doing its best to ease the problems of customers, who have complained of high billing during the quarantine period.
Espinosa said Meralco began issuing separate billings to customers to explain the computation in detail.
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