Meralco explains increased bill for the month of May

Meralco has explained why there’s a sudden increase in the electric bill of consumers for the month of May.

In an advisory, Meralco explained that March and April bills were estimated based on the past 3 months’ average daily consumption following the Distribution Services and Open Access Rules (DSOAR) issued by the ERC.

The past 3-months are December 2019, January 2020 and February 2020, which are considered “low consumption” as the said months were cooler compared to the summer months of March, April, and May.

The company also raised the following factors as to what affected your May bill:

• Increased consumption during ECQ- Everyone’s at home, so appliances are switched on most of the time, especially fans and aircon. Aircons that most would use 6 to 8 hours per day before ECQ could be using it for 12 to 24 hours per day in ECQ.

• Temperatures are at a record high (max so far for 2020 is at 37.3?C with Heat Index of 42?C).

• Actual Consumption minus Estimated Consumption was added in the May bill.

The May bill is a result of the actual kWh Consumption from the current meter reading, less the estimated consumption. You can check Meralco’s sample chart below:

Notes:

• Note X is just an example; the actual increase is measured via the actual meter reading.
• Note Y – This is based on DSOAR.

In other words, for the months of March and April, you might have been billed lower than what you actually consumed as it was based on the average of the previous “low consumption” months. When the meter reading resumed in May, the differences were then added to your current bill, making it higher.

How about households or businesses with little or no consumption?

This is what Meralco has to say:

If you were not home or your business is not operational during the ECQ period and your consumption during the ECQ period is expected to be much lower or at zero consumption, this will be reviewed by Meralco and will be corrected. Your bill will be corrected by computing the actual consumption taken from the difference of the May and the March or February reading, whichever is applicable.

Installment

Meralco says that unpaid bills with due date from March 1 to May 15, 2020 (bill date from Feb 21 to May 6) will be converted to 4 equal monthly installments. The first installment amount will reflect starting bills dated May 16 to be delivered on May 18.

For more information about the May bill computation, click on Meralco’s advisory page here.