Meralco gets go signal for test of prepaid power

Manila Electric Co. the country’s biggest power distributor, has been given the green light to implement a project that will allow it to conduct large-scale pilot tests for the prepaid retail electricity scheme by July this year.

In an order, the Energy Regulatory Commission said it has given a provisional approval for Meralco to postpone P293 million worth of capital projects so it can use the funds instead for the Implementation Services of the Prepaid Electricity Management System project (IS-PEMS).

This project will allow the utility to lay down the necessary technology and infrastructure to provide for a seamless implementation of the prepaid electricity scheme.

“An initial evaluation of the application discloses that the immediate implementation of the project would be beneficial to Meralco’s consumers particularly in giving them the choice for energy management strategies, enhancing operational efficiencies and promoting demand side management,” the ERC order stated.

The ERC further assured Meralco customers that the implementation of the IS-PEMS will not have an impact on the present charges of the power distributor, since the funding would be taken from the approved third regulatory period projects.

The IS-PEMS project will have two major components, namely the external integration with third party applications and the internal integration with other Meralco information system infrastructures. The integration cost is the same whether Meralco decides to use the 40,000 prepaid meters or more.

“Without the IS-PEMS, consumers will have very limited options in purchasing prepaid credits since there is no integration with established, numerous and familiar third party vending systems; no access from home through the Internet and the convenience of electronic loading would not be possible; and consumers would not be able to monitor their account balances when and where they want,” Meralco explained.

Meralco is hoping to start implementing the prepaid retail electricity scheme to realize commercial pilot of the system by July 2012 at the earliest, and for a full commercial roll out by 2013.

In earlier interview with the Inquirer, Alfredo S. Panlilio, senior vice president and head of customer retail services at Meralco, disclosed that the viability of the prepaid scheme will be tested among an initial 40 households in Angono, Rizal.

From this number, Meralco is targeting to further ramp up the number of participants to as many as 400 during the six-month pilot testing period.

The pilot activities will also test the viability of the existing prepaid platform, the prepaid meters and the various vending solutions that may be deployed.

Under the prepaid meter scheme, subscribers can monitor their electricity consumption in real time while their meter systems could warn them if and when the load is nearing zero to avoid automatic disconnection.