Power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will be introducing ‘smart tariffs or rates’ that will be tailor-fitted to consumers’ budgets and specific needs – be it for direct electricity services to homes and businesses; or on the charging of electric vehicles (EVs) as part of the country’s green transport future.

The ‘smart tariff’, according to Meralco Chief Operating Officer Ronnie L. Aperocho, will be dangled to customers via the company’s prepaid meters; as well as in the EV charging stations that the company has already been prepping for commercial-scale deployments.

The other service domain in which customers can take advantage of the ‘smart tariff’ will be on the evolving demand-side management (DSM) program of the company – and within that precept, consumers would be able to take advantage of cheaper electricity rates during off-peak hours or when demand in the whole system of the distribution utility (DU) is low.

Aperocho expounded that the offer of ‘smart tariff’ will be made possible with the power firm’s targeted installation ramp up of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) – also known as ‘intelligent meters’ that can perfectly apprise end-users not just on the rates they are paying for, but also on the pattern of usage that they have been registering in their meters as they avail the services of a utility company.

“With interval meter reads available in the smart meters, utilities like Meralco may offer ‘smart tariffs that are tailor-fitted to specific customer needs. This may include prepaid electricity, EV charging, demand-side management, among others,” the Meralco executive stressed.

The utility firm has not completely laid down the parameters yet on how it will calculate the ‘smart rates’ that it will be extending to customers; and the regulation regime for these types of technology innovations has not been firmly cast yet by government authorities.

In Meralco’s case, Aperocho conveyed that “down to the last mile, we have rolled out the initially approved 140,000 smart meters, mostly under prepaid electricity program, within a relatively small area of our franchise.”

To accelerate the rollout of AMI or smart meters, he stated that “we are continuously advocating with the regulators our plan to scale up our AMI deployment to all Meralco customers.”

The customer base of Meralco, at present, hovers at 7.7 million – and the lion’s share would account for residential end-users within its service areas in Metro Manila and the neighboring provinces of Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Quezon.

Aperocho reiterated that “among the smart grid initiatives, we now focus on our AMI program which serves as a digital platform in empowering our customers,” qualifying that  “AMI is recognized globally as a key technology enabler for smart grids.”

Beyond catering to the needs of budget-conscious and quality service-seeking customers, Meralco is similarly accelerating its smart grid journey across the chain of its service networks and through all the thread of its operations.

“To decarbonize the grid, we have to do away with the ageing fossil-based power plants and accommodate more and more renewable, cleaner and variable renewable energy resources without compromising power quality and reliability. To do this, we need to embark on a smart grid journey. And like many smart grid programs globally, ours is enabled by cross-cutting IT/OT (information technology/operational technology) communications, and cybersecurity technologies,” he stressed.

Aperocho emphasized that for the company’s substations, “we started adopting the latest industry-standard IEC 61850 and proliferated the use of asset condition sensors such as online DGA (dissolved gas analysis) and bushing monitoring, among others.”

With that, he explained that the company’s power distribution network  “will continue to be more automated as we scale up our distribution automation devices including remote-controlled reclosers and switches.”

Part of the company’s automation and digitalization ventures will be subsequent integration of massive battery energy storage systems (BESS) as well as hasten the commercial scale rollout of EVs.

He further specified that for the backend sphere of the company’s operations, “we have our SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) and ADMS (advanced distribution management system) and in the future,” while also indicating the company’s plan to “implement DERMS (distributed energy resources management system) and expand our suite of mobility applications.”