The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) said on Tuesday, Jan. 28, that it will file an application to refund a total of P19 billion to its customers over a period of three years, following an order from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
In a statement, Meralco said the refund, which is equivalent to around 19 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for residential customers, covers the difference between its actual weighted average tariff and the last approved rate of P1.35/kWh from July 2022 to December 2024.
Meralco said that the refund is in compliance with the ERC’s order in December that declared July 2022-June 2025 as a “Lapsed Period,” during which there was no completed rate reset under the 5th Regulatory Period (5RP).
The ERC’s order was duly published as a pre-filing requirement.
“Our proposal is to implement the refund over a period of 36 months,” said Meralco. “It will be up to the ERC to accept, approve, or modify this application.”
The ERC will review Meralco’s application and decide on the final amount and implementation timeline.
To recall, the ERC had ordered in December private distribution utilities (DUs) to refund to consumers due to unused expenses initially intended for technical experts.
The ERC said the refund stemmed from unused expenses initially intended for technical experts during the commission's periodic regulatory rate reset. However, no actual payments were made to technical experts because the DUs did not engage them.
The funds for this purpose were instead provided to the ERC under the annual government budget.
The rate reset, conducted by the ERC, reviews and adjusts the rates that DUs can charge consumers.