VECO plans to expand pilot test area in Naga

CEBU, Philippines - The Visayan Electric Company plans to make the pilot testing of the prepaid metering scheme available to all interested users in Naga City to finally kick off with the project.

Naga City government initially endorsed a new commercial center as the test area for the electric company, however the establishment has yet to have tenants for VECO to start the pilot testing, said VECO reputation management department head Theresa G. Sederiosa.

Sederiosa said VECO targets to open the prepaid metering option by June next year.

Initially, VECO had installed 20 prepaid meters to vacant stalls in the commercial complex.

Prepaid electricity scheme is not only attractive to the budget conscious consumers but also to other sectors in the electric consuming public, such as those that owns condominiums, apartments, rest houses or vacation homes and boarding houses, among others.

VECO has close to 400 thousand electric consumers in its franchise area covering from San Fernando in the Southern part of Cebu and up to Liloan in the northern part of the Metro.

In 2009, the Energy Regulatory Commission issued the rules governing the prepaid metering scheme for electricity, officially allowing distribution utilities like VECO to begin offering the service to customers.

The scheme is expected to help residential customers manage their consumption of electricity.

With the issuance of rules, distribution utilities could file their applications with the ERC to offer paid retail electric service  to their residential customers.

The PRES is an electric service that uses a prepaid metering system designed to allow a residential customer to purchase credit or load and then use electricity until such time his load is exhausted.

It is also expected not only to benefit consumers but also the distribution utilities because the service will allow for "operational efficiency."

Customers will have the option to apply for a prepaid retail electric service on a voluntary basis subject to the availability of a distribution utility's prepaid electric service infrastructure.

According to ERC, the electricity rates will be the same as those charged under the existing post paid scheme, unless the distribution utility applies for and the ERC approves a different tariff for prepaid meters. (FREEMAN)