Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is seeking regulatory approval to return approximately ₱9 billion to its customers, adding to an existing multi-billion peso refund program aimed at easing the burden of high electricity costs.

In an interview, Ronald Valles, Meralco head of regulatory management, said the country’s largest power distributor has filed two separate applications under the Actual Weighted Average Tariff (AWAT) mechanism.

The filings, valued at ₱4.69 billion and ₱4.32 billion, represent over-collections that Meralco intends to credit back to consumers.

The move follows a directive from the ERC earlier this year to accelerate a prior ₱19.96 billion payout. While Meralco originally planned to distribute that larger sum over 36 months, the regulator ordered the remaining ₱14.17 billion to be fast-tracked over a one-year period to provide more immediate relief to households facing volatile energy prices.

Valles confirmed that the company is currently awaiting the ERC’s initial action on the two new applications, which cover the periods of July 2024 to June 2025 and July 2025 to December 2025.

“We’re just waiting for the ERC’s initial action on those applications. I think we received already an order stating the two cases,” he told reporters.

These are designated as AWAT II and AWAT III. Under Meralco’s current proposal, the ₱9 billion would be distributed over 36 months, though the timeline remains subject to the regulator's discretion. Initial hearings for these cases are scheduled to begin in May 2026.

The AWAT serves as a “true-up” mechanism in the Philippine power sector. It requires distribution utilities to reconcile the revenue they actually collected against the maximum allowable revenue set by the regulator.

When actual revenues exceed the authorized limit, the difference must be returned to the ratepayer. These adjustments typically appear as a distinct line item on monthly electricity bills labeled as AWAT (Refund)/Collect.

The acceleration of the previous ₱19.96 billion refund resulted in a deduction of ₱0.2511 per kilowatt-hour starting this month, a significant increase from the initial refund rate of ₱0.1189 per kilowatt-hour implemented in April 2025.

Meralco’s latest filings suggest a continued effort to stabilize consumer rates as the industry navigates the long-term effects of the global energy crisis.

If the ERC follows its recent precedent of shortening refund periods, consumers could see even larger monthly deductions than currently proposed by the utility.