Davao del Sur cooperative to sell prepaid electricity

DIGOS City, Philippines—The prepaid craze has caught up with the Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative (Dasureco), which is now finalizing its move toward a “load-for-electricity” scheme.

Godofredo Guya, Dasureco general manager, said the Energy Regulatory Commission has already approved the scheme that the power coop plans to implement, probably within the year.

If the scheme materializes, Dasureco, which has nearly 90,000 consumers, will become the first power cooperative in Mindanao to adopt the prepaid scheme.

In Luzon, the San Fernando Electric Light and Power Co. Inc. in Pampanga recently launched a similar scheme, making it the first privately run power company to offer the Prepaid Electric System Pilot Run.

The concept of prepaid power was inspired by the success of prepaid mobile phone cards, and recently, debit cards, proponents said.

Guya said the idea of a prepaid power was aimed at teaching consumers how to save on electricity. He said that because using power would now depend on how much load a consumer has, overuse of electricity would be avoided.

Guya said that under the scheme, consumers could not buy prepaid cards in excess of their 12-month consumption of about 2,400 kilowatt hours, or about 200 megawatts per month.

“We will only allow consumers to buy card with value equivalent to their one-year use at 200 megawatts per month,” he said.

Prepaid cards will be available starting at P100.

The cards can be bought from reloading stations that Dasureco would accredit, such as selected grocery stores and prepaid card dealers.

Under the prepaid system, Guya said, Dasureco will install new meters – equipped with microchips – on houses of consumers who avail of the scheme.

The attraction of the prepaid system is that consumers will have better control over their power expenses, Guya said. He said when the load is nearly consumed, the consumer will be warned to top up.

Another good thing, Guya said, is that consumers who would forget to top up on time will not be charged the usual reconnection fee of P100 when their service is disrupted. All they need, he said, is buy another prepaid card.

As in the case of prepaid mobile phone services, a consumer only needs to key into the meter the PIN numbers on the prepaid card they purchased so their electricity could resume.

Guya stressed that Dasureco was not shifting completely to the prepaid system.

The postpaid system, he said, will still be available for consumers who choose to pay their consumption at the end of their billing cycle.