Over 96,000 prepaid electricity service (PRES) customers were logged at the end of September.
More Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) customers have chosen PRES or Kuryente Load as it allows consumers to to buy prepaid credits as low as P 100 to power their homes.
“The demand for prepaid metering continues to grow with a total of 96,717 activated prepaid meters as of September 30, 2018,” said Meralco in a report.
Consumers can monitor their consumption through daily balance notifications. They can also reload anytime, anywhere through multiple loading channels including, Meralco business centers, Bayad Center outlets, and e-load retailers.
The average per capita monthly consumption of prepaid metering accounts increased to 142 kWh during the nine-month period this year, from 136 kWh during the same period last year.
Last year, Meralco activated an additional 48,735 PRES customers totaling to 89,717, an all-time high as activations doubled year-on-year.
PRES is available in residential areas in the cities of Manila, Mandaluyong, Makati, and Pasig. As well as, municipalities of Angono, Cainta, Binangonan, and Taytay in Rizal, and parts of Taguig, Pasay, San Juan, Parañaque, Novaliches, Caloocan, Cavite, Tagaytay, and Bulacan.
The average consumers of prepaid electricity included residential customers, retail estate developers who cater to students and young families living in low, mid, and high-residential rise buildings.
According to research from actual consumer usage, customers were able to save an average of 20 percent on electricity consumption or P 300 worth of savings per customer, citing the text messaging service as an effective monitoring tool.
The PRES runs on the latest smart meters outages are detected instantly, allowing for faster restoration. In this meter system, customers are allowed to monitor their electricity consumption, which allows them to budget their consumption and expenses.
