Veco still eyes prepaid meters

Sun.Star Cebu <> Thursday, October 16, 2008

BY NANCY R. CUDIS, Sun.Star Staff Reporter

DESPITE the lack of government regulations and limited supply of prepaid meters, the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) continues to eye the implementation of prepaid meters before 2008 ends.

However, at this point, the power distribution firm is still discussing with the Energy Regulatory Commission, which is yet to set definite rules and regulations for such system, as to what will be included in Veco’s rate billing.

“We want to make this a large project. We haven’t given up on it,” said Veco senior vice president and chief operating officer Jaime Jose Aboitiz.

He also noted that the meter standards used locally are American brands and the very few suppliers of prepaid electricity meters are in the U.S.

“We’re trying to see how we can modify the standards to include other suppliers,” he said.

Apart from the U.S., other probable sources of such meters are Germany, China, and Singapore. But some of these meters can be expensive, with a price range of P5,000 to P6,000.

With this high cost, Aboitiz said that no customer would want to switch to prepaid electricity meters.

“We still haven’t found a prepaid metering solution that is still cost-effective. I’m looking for a magic number, with a range of up to P2,000. With 2,000, a consumer could still want to change. With P5,000, it’s unlikely,” he told reporters.

This system works like a prepaid cellular phone subscription. It will also require a different type of meter that will have a special keypad on which a consumer can punch in the amount of electricity load he purchased.

Aboitiz said that commercial establishments like condominiums and apartments could also greatly benefit from this system, especially if they will only make use of them evey once in a while.

Veco officials visited South Africa in April this year to study the prepaid electricity meter system there.

Filed under: Business, Energy Regulatory Commission, Veco senior vice president and chief operating officer, Visayan Electric Co. (Veco)