Power firm to pilot test prepaid scheme

CEBU, Philippines - The Visayan Electric Company is set to launch a pilot test of its prepaid metering scheme this month.

VECO senior vice president and chief operating officer Sebastian Lacson said that the company is going to start its pilot testing in the City of Naga in the southern part of Cebu.

The company aims to formally launch this pilot project before the end of this month.

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

VECO has over 340 thousand electric consumers in its franchise area covering from San Fernando in the Southern part of Cebu, and up to Lilo-an 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 their 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 is expected to benefit not only the 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.

The ERC added that the distribution utilities should also provide reasonable means from which the residential electricity consumers would have easy access to the purchase of the electric energy credit for 24 hours daily to ensure continuous electricity service.