Meralco set to launch prepaid service

business mirror

THURSDAY, 26 JANUARY 2012 22:22 PAUL ANTHONY A. ISLA / REPORTER

BARRING hitches, the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will launch before the end of the year its prepaid service.

Alfred Panlilio, Meralco senior vice president for customer retail service, said a pilot test would start as soon as the Meralco board gives its go-signal.

“We want to begin the pilot test soon so we can get insights on how consumers adapt to prepaid electricity service and how we can package it,” Panlilio said during a roundtable discussion with the BusinessMirror and its sister media companies, the Philippines Graphic and radio station dwIZ.

The Meralco prepaid- electricity scheme works like the mobile-phone loading system.  A consumer provides a sari-sari store or any prepaid outlet his subscriber information number and the amount is loaded to that number via text message.

The results of the pilot test will help Meralco deliver a good prepaid-electricity service to consumers, Panlilio said.

“If we start [the pilot test] in March or April, it will be completed in four months and, hopefully, we could officially launch [the program] by the last quarter.” he said.

Earlier, he said most of customers showed their preference for prepaid electricity, saying the managed appliance use matched their household expense with their income.

A recent consumer research done by Meralco and General Electric showed that the prepaid system, which is like buying tingi, is ingrained in the Filipino lifestyle.

“Many wage earners receive daily or weekly pay, so they prefer their expenses—from mobile phones to Internet and electricity —to be also on a tingi basis,” Panlilio said.

The prepaid program would enable customers to budget their cash outflows. With the scheme, electricity becomes more affordable for many.

The study also noted that consumers were interested in the prepaid system because it serves as a budget tool that teaches household members to save and share expenses.

If households can manage their electricity consumption through the prepaid-electricity scheme, it could mean a lot of savings that could be used for other necessities, the study said. The results of the study will guide Meralco in designing the service it plans to pilot wit in the year and implement on a wider scale in 2012. “This prepaid innovation is meant to give our customers power of choice. That is why we wanted them to be involved from the beginning of this undertaking,” he said.

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IN PHOTO -- MERALCO COO Oscar Reyes fields questions from editors, commentators and reporters of the BUSINESSMIRROR, Philippines Graphic and dwIZ during a roundtable forum at the BusinessMirror conference room in Makati City. With him is Ivana de la Peña, Meralco first vice president and head of the regulatory management office. --NONIE REYES