Three Philippine utilities to debut pre-paid electricity scheme

Largest Philippine power distributor to follow in 2014.

The Energy Regulatory Commission has announced that three power utilities in the provinces will be the first in the Philippines to sell pre-paid electricity to consumers.

They utilities are Batangas I Electric Cooperative, Inc. located in Batangas province to the south of Manila; Bohol I Electric Cooperative, Inc. and Bohol II Electric Cooperative, Inc. in the southern region of Luzon island.

Manila Electric Company or Meralco, the country’s largest power distributor, will implement its own prepaid electricity scheme in the second quarter of 2014 in Rizal province, which is where Manila is located.

The prepaid electricity scheme is a system intended to help consumers budget their electricity consumption and will work in ways similar to reloading mobile phones.

Meralco will sell its “electricity load” in US$2.30, US$4.60, US$6.90, US$11.50 and US$23.00 denominations.

Meralco has a franchise area that covers 9,337 square kilometers, or 3% of the Philippines’ total land area. It has over five million customers or 25% of the country’s total population 11.

Meralco said the primary target for its prepaid electricity service are middle class households that pay from US$23 to US$69 a month for electricity.