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The Power Regulatory Fee (ERC) has ordered the Manila Electrical Co. (Meralco) to refund its clients an extra P4.8 billion after it recomputed the utility agency’s Precise Weighted Common Tariff (AWAT).
The entire quantity of P4,837,163,842 is equal to a median refund charge of P0.1064 per kilowatt hour (kWh), which shall be refunded to its clients starting the billing cycle instantly after receipt of the order, which was promulgated final March 7 and revealed on the ERC web site over the weekend.
“The Fee’s recalculation of the AWAT resulted in a distinction of P0.0067 per kilowatt hour (kWh) from the provisionally permitted AWAT amounting to P1.4414 per kWh. Likewise, the identical recalculated AWAT confirmed a variance of P0.0671 per kWh from Meralco’s permitted Most Common Value (MAP) amounting to P1.3810 per kWh.
In consideration of the distinction and variance, an extra refund of P4,837,163,842.00, or a median charge of P0.1064 per kWh over a 12-month interval to the shoppers of Meralco is deemed so as, protecting the interval December 2020 to December 2021,” mentioned the ERC in its 23-page choice.
The ERC informed Meralco to mirror the refund charge as a separate line merchandise within the electrical energy payments. Of the overall refund quantity, P3,036,678,482 or P0.1923 per kWh, will go to residential & normal service A clients; P275,583,867 or P0.1262 per kWh, for normal service B; P1,467,808,456, or P0.0549 per kWh; P20,222,542, or P0.0812 per kWh for presidency hospitals, metered avenue lights and charitable establishments; P27,156,139, or P0.1999 per kWh for flat streetlights; and P9,714,356, or P0.0255 per kWh for generator-wheeling.
“The speedy implementation of extra refunds to Meralco customers is acceptable and well timed. Furthermore, the Fee, given its lawful mandate to guard the welfare of customers, should exhaust all acts and cures obtainable to minimize the impression of the pandemic upon customers. This supplemental order, within the type of interim reduction, is a optimistic measure to make sure the customers are assisted in a well timed method and with due regard to their pursuits,” it mentioned.
It may be recalled that in February final yr, the ERC directed Meralco to refund P13.89 billion in over-recoveries based mostly on its AWAT from July 2015 to November 2020. The quantity is equal to a median of P0.1528 per kWh and was returned to clients in 24 months.
“The Fee, based mostly on its preliminary analysis of the applying and all the knowledge now obtainable, together with the information mirrored in Meralco’s lately submitted Uniform Reportorial Requirement for the yr 2021, the Fee decided that it’s however correct, and helpful to shopper, to broaden the interval lined by the refund to incorporate December 2020 to December 2021.
This extra interval lined by the refund is properly inside the protection of the lapsed interval affected by the regulatory lag,” mentioned the ERC.
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