Ensure Meralco improves service, group urges ERC

The consumer advocacy group Foundation for National Development (FND) urged the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to ensure that Meralco delivers on promised system improvements, as a result of the recently granted provisional authority for a 12-centavo power rate increase.

"If they are true to their mandate as regulators, the ERC should assure consumers that this rate increase will translate to an enhanced reliability of electric power supply to our homes and business establishments," said FND chairman Antonio Hombrebueno.

ERC granted Meralco a provisional authority to increase its rates by P0.12 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) effective on the January billing cycle. This is less than the P0.1358 increase sought by Meralco.

The FND has been at the forefront of enlightened consumer advocacy and was one of the first to issue warnings of impending brownouts even before government officials admitted the existence of power supply deficiencies. Today, the same officials are frantically scrambling for solutions with very little time left.

Meralco asked for the rate hike to finance 42 capital projects to meet the growing consumer demand for power, improve the efficiency and reliability of Meralco’s sub-transmission system, replace its more than 30-year-old power transformers, and provide flexibility to its distribution network.