Meralco senior vice president and customer retail services head Alfredo Panlilio was quoted by BusinessMirror as saying that a total of 38,000 meters will be rolled out from the fourth quarter of 2014 up to 2015.
The 40,000-unit prepaid meter project was approved by the ERC in January, following which the company started the commercial pilot for 2,000 customers in Taytay and Angono, in Rizal province, for planned completion in May 2014.
Panlilio said the company has received 1,050 applications, mostly from new Meralco customers, after eight weeks into commercial pilot.
"Of this number, 140 now are already in service. Once we hit 200, we will conduct consumer research in terms of their experience of the service," Panlilio added.
The consumer research will form part of Meralco’s business model that will be submitted to the ERC, while the pilot activities are expected to determine the viability of the planned platforms, prepaid meters and the possible trouble-shooting mechanisms, according to Panlilio.
The prepaid service offering is claimed to enable customers to budget their electricity consumption, and also informs consumers if they need to reload immediately to avoid disconnection.
