Prepaid Electricity???
By ofzhernandez
@ofzhernandez (278)
Philippines
November 5, 2012 7:09pm CST
What happened to the government of the Philippines? They implement the "Prepaid Electricity"? What about that!! Is that really taking effect next year? How come that people in the government think of doing such thing to the people of the Philippines. Meralco is a big company that I think consumers are their big buyer that makes them big and wealthy. How come they come to a conclusion of turning electricity into a Prepaid type of consumption. How about those people at a lower class can they afford buying everyday their electricity consumption? How about the "May liwanag sa Meralco" goes?
How about small type business? especially those business that are using electricity like Karinderia or small restaurant when they suddenly run out of load it is so disturbing to go and buy electricity load to continue their business. How about that? on residencies what if they run out of load in wee hours are they gonna run and buy load just to continue the electricity in their house?
What do you think guys, is Prepaid electricity can really help small consumers? Or it will just make big companies like meralco a much wealthy establishment here in the Philippines?
1 person likes this
11 responses
@franseman (516)
• Philippines
6 Nov 12
Coming from Holland I was surprised we have to go to the office of the power company every month to pay the bill cash. "Why can't we give the bank an order to wire it every month automatically?" I asked. I was suprised by the answer that the bill is different each month. Of course it is, I can understand that. In Holland however you pay the average amount of last year each month. So if you use more you get a final bill over that year, early in the next year. Did you use less, you get the amount back. It's easy and simple.
I read about people having a hard time paying their bills. But I can't see why the new system should be worse. Paying after a month or in advance: either way you have to pay.
1 person likes this
@rsa101 (37952)
• Philippines
7 Nov 12
Yeah seems like a good system you have in Holland. But in here electric companies are buying their power from different power plants and they have different rates at one certain point in time. I really could not understand why the power fluctuates every now and then so these electric companies charges the increase or decrease in electric spot market where they are buying the electricity.
Another factor is that we are oil importer so the minute oil prices surges then the power rates increases as well. Very confusing actually but paying on prepaid would make things simpler which I doubt if the electric companies would like.
@rsa101 (37952)
• Philippines
7 Nov 12
I know this has been on trial in some areas here in NCR to test its viability on it. I know some other countries have been using this since it is pretty convenient for many electric companies to charge prepaid than the usual postpaid plans. In prepaid the consumer will be conscious of their usage of power if not they will get disconnected. The power companies will have lesser headaches running after those consumers that would consume more than what they cannot afford to pay.
I am just not sure what was the results of the trial if Meralco found it to be viable in our setting. And when can it be available to the rest of the consumers.
@ofzhernandez (278)
• Philippines
7 Nov 12
So in short that type of setting will be beneficial to Meralco only and not to all consumers of Meralco. They will just passing headaches to consumers wherein without us consumer their business is nothing. Why not think of other way to both parties will be convenient and economical. how bout that? ^_^
1 person likes this
@rsa101 (37952)
• Philippines
7 Nov 12
From what I understand this is an optional for the consumer if they want it prepaid or not. I think for those budget conscious but could not control their electric usage then prepaid would be better for them so they can somehow budget in advance the electricity they could afford to use once the load is almost used up then I guess they will need to budget for another one. But for those that can afford to have it postpaid and they are ready to pay for the consumption they will be consuming for a month then go for postpaid plan.
But I think there is this one component they have not thought of. Since electric cost is not fixed like the cellphone prepaid load then it is hard to really determine once consumption. Unless those prepaid plans are exempted for any fluctuation in the prices of electricity. This will be disadvantageous from Meralco in that case. I think that is the reason why they are having a second thought implementing it right now.
@ofzhernandez (278)
• Philippines
9 Nov 12
If this setting is optional it is much okay then. But for me it is still not a good idea to make it prepaid because our bill fluctuates monthly. Every month there's a change in per KWH of our electricity. So if it is on a prepaid plan if what was your bill today may not be your bill next month. Like my bill last august my reading was 124 Kwh and it cost me Php 1,532.30 but when my bill last sept was 126 Kwh cost me Php 1,339. As you can see the Kwh increases but the cost decreases and now my october bill is 118 Kwh cost Php 1,269.75, even if my consumption decreases my bill is almost the same. So for me I don't want to have it on a prepaid basis because monthly Meralco is changing their price.
@SIMPLYD (90722)
• Philippines
9 Nov 12
From what i heard , prepaid electricity will not be mandatory , but an option of the people. If they can afford it, they can opt for the regular way. But if not, they can opt to have the prepaid electricity.
That way, being delinquents in paying the electric bill can be avoided by some people.
@jureathome (5361)
• Philippines
8 Nov 12
I think it will teach people to be more responsible over their electricity consumption. However, electricity provider companies should stop billing consumers for unnecessary charges such as those items about losses. It's unfair. We should only be paying for what we're using.
@jureathome (5361)
• Philippines
29 Nov 12
It's like we're paying part of the electricity that is not paid by those households that are stealing electricity. Those using jumpers and whatever other mechanism to not be billed for the electricity they're using.
@ofzhernandez (278)
• Philippines
9 Nov 12
You are right they charge us that System Loss Charge that we did not know how come we have losses charge. How did they get that and made us shoulder that losses.
@tangleddreams84 (581)
• United States
6 Nov 12
We have a program here in New York. You must pay the same every month no matter how much electricity you use. At the end of the year we either get a refund or pay this difference. I think it is a good program. To keep bills steady.
@rubrub (166)
• Philippines
21 Nov 12
is this really happening? this is the first time i heard about that "prepaid electricity" by Meralco. well, i dont see it as a bad news... this would be a big help to our poor citizens who cant afford to pay their monthly electricity bills. the cost just needs to be reasonable, and they should not take advantage of it.
this way people would be able to easily manage their electricity bills. just like how cellular loading company works. maybe you dont know this coming years they would implement a promo for "unli electricity".. hahaha
@ybong007 (6643)
• Philippines
8 Nov 12
I don't have any idea how prepaid electricity would work but if it has the same concept as a cellphone load then people would be prompted to pay more attention on their consumption. Unlike the monthly billing scheme where people will only react when they see the bill, in a prepaid scheme people will have to pay attention on how much credit they're left an ensure that power lasts until the next payment. I just hope that people paying prepaid won't have to pay more than those whose payment is on a monthly basis.
@jenny1015 (13366)
• Philippines
6 Nov 12
I think that if this will be implemented, the prepaid scheme would be based on the average consumption of a certain household or business in a month. This is a way of saving electricity so we could prevent from plugging in appliances that we do not really use all the time. A lot of people could not afford to pay up their bills because of this. There maybe an advantage and a disadvantage, but that is how one program really works. As for the poor families who doesn't have the money to buy for a prepaid electricity, then I think they would just have to go by having to use electricity lesser in a month. Well, let's just see how this would affect us.
@mikyung (2232)
• Philippines
6 Nov 12
I think, this move is advantageous to the distributor as I compare it with those prepaid cellular phone loads which is beneficial for all. I hope they can make this workable to both parties, because, we the consumers deserve what we really pay. The government should make it a point that this will go in a win-win situation for all. Anything that is good for all parties is favorable for me. Thanks
@mrsuniega (786)
• Philippines
7 Nov 12
I think prepaid electricity is an addition to the service rendered by electric companies. It's an option for consumers whether to avail for prepaid or monthly. this step is good since consumers have the options suited for his/her budget.
@romzee (937)
• Philippines
6 Nov 12
I believe that prepaid electricity is more beneficial to Meralco and other power distributor than to the consumer public.
And I don't think most home will prefer prepaid electricity.
Unlike prepaid cellphone load that involve small amount of money,
prepaid electricity load involve big cash that most
small consumer don't usually have.
There maybe some instances this type of billing is more beneficial.
Lessor and lessee may opt for this kind of service because prepaid service eliminates the persistent issue of lessees leaving behind bills.
Worries from getting out of load, Meralco said a warning is already in place.
When the load is running low,the consumer also gets a warning text,approximately four days before the electricity is cut off.
As I understand, prepaid electricity is voluntary and not compulsory
and Meralco will be staging pilot areas by next year.
Have a good day.
Ciao!
