Today I’m going to revisit a topic I first took up about two weeks ago (“Meralco creates chaos with billing scheme,” May 26). In that time, a number of Meralco customers have graciously supplied me with their billing data for the past several months, which, after careful analysis, has led to a couple of disturbing empirical conclusions. Again, this was completely legal, a function of unnecessarily convoluted billing formulae that are ultimately authorized by the Energy Regulatory Commission. So, for example, an “average” Meralco customer, one who uses about 250 kWh a month, pays an average total of about P9.33/kWh, while a “low” user consuming half that amount of electricity monthly pays an average total of about P9.00/kWh. What this did, then, was push many “low” and “average” electricity consumers into a “high” category, and subject them to much higher rates.

Source: Manila Times June 10, 2020 16:30 UTC