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By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo, Reporter
HOUSEHOLDS may soon avail of “prepaid”
meters to control their electricity consumption after the Energy
Regulatory Commission (ERC) released the draft rules for the said
scheme.
The regulator recently put up for public
scrutiny the rules for prepaid retail electricity service that is
expected to help consumers cope with the country’s high cost of
electricity, which is second only to Japan in the region.
Under the proposed rules, prepaid meters to be
offered to the public should store at least two months’ worth of
electricity consumption.
The rates to be applied in any prepaid
transaction “should be based on the previous month’s postpaid
rate” but will not affect subsidized rates for households
consuming less than 100 kilowatts of electricity per month.
Distribution utilities will shoulder the cost of
prepaid meters and no deposits will be collected for this.
“All interested parties may submit their
comments in both hard and soft copies on the proposed rules on or
before August 15, 2008,” the ERC said.
The ERC likewise scheduled public consultations
on August 26 and September 2 for electric utilities.
The proposed prepaid metering scheme comes on
the heels of a prepaid scheme offered by Seaoil Philippines Inc. in
light of the soaring price of crude in the world market.
Seaoil’s “Price Lock Fuel Prepaid Card”
gives cardholders an easier time budgeting their fuel expenses as
they will be insulated from further spikes in gasoline costs during
the promo period.
But as prepaid schemes may offer consumers only
a temporary reprieve from high fuel and electricity costs, the
Department of Energy is urging the public to shift to energy saving
technology and alternative energy use to cut their costs.
The Energy department is set to take the lead
with the launch of the “Switch Movement” to address the issues
of energy security and climate change through the adoption of best
energy practices in the country. The movement aims to promote the
use of compact fluorescent lamps in lieu of incandescent bulbs. It
also calls for the switch from petroleum-based fuels to alternative
fuels, from kerosene to renewable energy sources in remote rural
areas, from fuel-based technologies to renewable energy technologies
in power generation, and from vestiges of centralized energy
planning to more participative planning at the local level.
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