Davao Light assures meter readings are accurate

ABOITIZPOWER subsidiary Davao Light and Power Company (Davao Light) assured that there’s no discrepancy with their reading.

During the 14th regular session of the 20th Davao City Council on October 11, 2022, City Councilor Jessica Bonguyan asked Davao Light how they can read the meter if their team is far from their customer’s electric meter.

“Para daw may telescope ang mata kasi malayo masyado [na nagbabasa] (It seems that they have built in telescopes with how far they are),” Bonguyan said.

Arnold Arsolon, Head of Customer Services at Davao Light, said assured that the readings conducted by the team to check on the meters of its customers are accurate.

“We are conscientious in doing our meter reading and we can say we are reading each meter accurately,” Arnold Arsolon, Head of Customer Services in Davao Light, said.

Arsolon said their contractors have been using a cellphone to read each customer’s meter.

“We’re using a cellphone to read meter whenever there is an issue with the distance, then we use the camera to zoom the meter and in our service level agreement, we require [them] to take a photo with that,” Arsolon said.

Arsolon said the device being used has been configured to make sure the reading is accurate.

“In that gadget, we put some stringent measures to ensure that we do correct reading. That meter reader cannot proceed in saving the meter reading without confirming, and if there’s a sudden increase of the consumption, the reader will alarm the gadget that you have to check your meter reading twice,” he said.

Arsolon said they are aware of the public’s concern with regard to the meter reading but they said these complaints have been double-checked.

“We have been receiving complaints like high consumption and it even reaches to ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission) but all of these complaints were found to be accurate. Our meter readers are doing a good job in making sure that the reading is correct,” Arsolon said.

He also said whenever there’s a rate increase in their generation charges, people always think that the reading is inaccurate.

“It has always been like that since the beginning. Those rates, whenever there’s an increase in pass-on rates, there’s always a perception that our meter reading is inaccurate,” Arsolon said.

Meanwhile, Arsolon said if the customer still believes there is a discrepancy, they may file a complaint to their customer service platforms so that it will be investigated.

“We always encourage our customers to raise their issues through our webpage or [Facebook page], they can always [message] us, take a photo of the meter with a reading, we can always adjust if there’s an error,” Arsolon said.

He also said that they will not disconnect their customer’s connection if there’s a valid reason. KSD