MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) is hoping that the rate reset program will finally push through in light of the Energy Regulatory Commission's (ERC) recent decision to drop the motions of reconsideration it filed against the ERC 2023 decision regarding its refunds to customers and its actual weighted average tariff (AWAT) application.

During a media briefing on Tuesday, Meralco said the longer the rate reset program was delayed, the greater impact it would have on all stakeholders because it would cause more confusion on electricity rates. Also, pushing through with the rate rest would help lessen doubts about the charging of electricity rates.

"With this action, at least all distribution utilities can now move forward with the regulatory reset. In our view, this promotes regulatory stability and an efficient, transparent rate-rebasing exercise with the full compliance of the due process," Meralco Vice President and Head of Corporate Communications Joe Zaldarriaga said.

On June 16, the ERC, in a 3-2 vote, denied the motions filed in July 2022 by the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms Inc. and Romeo Junia, as well as the motion for partial reconsideration and clarificatory judgment that former ERC commissioner Alfredo Non Jr. filed in the same month.

The motions sought the reconsideration of ERC's decisions approving Meralco's overall refund to customers totaling around P21.77 billion covering July 2015 to June 2022 and to formally grant Meralco's instant application confirming the true-up calculation of its AWAT.

The ERC said in the decision that it found no merit in the contentions made in the motions and highlighted that it exercised its general rate-setting authority and power to act on applications under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act in approving Meralco's AWAT application.

"If you can recall, the reason this situation on the refunds happened was because the rate rebasing program has been delayed for a long time for all distribution utilities and not just Meralco," Meralco Head of Utility Economics Larry Fernandez said.

"Regarding this decision, again, we are happy to put that behind us and start the rate reset soon," he added.

In July 2015, Meralco implemented an interim average rate (IAR) of P1.3810 per kilowatt hour (kWh) after filing an application and securing provisional approval from the ERC due to the commission not setting a schedule for the rate rebasing program for the initial period of July 15, 2015 until June 30, 2019.

Afterward, in February 2021, the ERC approved Meralco's proposal to implement a distribution rate true-up (DRTU) refund of P13.90 billion, representing the difference between IAR and AWAT covering the lapsed period from July 2015 to November 2020.

However, this did not push through.

Then, in July 2022, Meralco received the last decision from the ERC that set the final IAR for the entire lapsed period of July 2015 to June 2022 to P1.3522 per kWh and directed the distribution utility to refund about P21.77 billion to its customers.