Wednesday, August 27, 2008 ERC consults public on prepaid scheme
THE Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) conducted a public consultation yesterday on the proposal of the power distribution utilities (DUs) to sell electricity through a prepaid scheme.
But the scheme is just an option and consumers can choose to remain with the metering system, ERC Commissioner Jose C. Reyes said.
Present during the public consultation were Transco personnel and DUs such as the Visayas Elecric Co.
Reyes said the consultation was held to gather comments from the consumers about the plan.
The system is similar to that used in loading cellular phones.
“It is prepaid because presently, electric service is on a post-paid basis. There may be certain applications that will benefit consumers,” he said.
Barangays
“If it is on a prepaid system like, for example, if you live in a mountain barangay of Talisay (City), you may want to go into prepaid because it saves you trips to Talisay proper to make payment for an electricity bill,” he said.
Reyes said that with the scheme, the consumer can control power consumption.
Businessman Crisologo Saavedra, who attended the consultation, said the scheme is disadvantageous to consumers especially the poor who cannot pay what they have not yet consumed.
“The consumers can remain in postpaid or can go into prepaid. But if they want to save money, they can save money with prepaid,” Reyes said.
When asked about the DUs’ proposal that they will require new applicants to go prepaid, Reyes said it is not a rule yet, although this an option being implemented in other countries.
Tailored
“The consumers here are not properly represented. That’s the problem. So they just discuss the provisions that are tailored to the advantage of the distribution utilities,” Saavedra said.
Reyes replied: “I don’t think we are involved in a political rally to expose this to all the public. It is not ERC who will bring this to the public. It will be the distribution utility who will bring this to the consumers.”
