Prepaid electricity now in Batangas

Residents of Barangay Camastilisan in Calaca town of Batangas are the beneficiary of the country fs first prepaid electricity system, which started commercial operation last Jan. 16.

Around 295 residents of the barangay have signed up for the new service of the Batelec 1, the largest electric cooperative in the country, according to power use section head Ricardo Macalagim.

Macalagim said technology provider Xen Energy will handle the program where consumers can purchase prepaid loads of P100, P200 and P300 by sending a text message to 2861 (for Globe users only).

After five minutes, the prepaid consumer will get a text confirming the purchase of electricity load.

“Consumers can check the balance of their load by sending ‘kwbalance’ to 2861, ” Macalagim told reporters.

“We can now budget our electricity consumption under the prepaid system,” one of the residents said.

Frank Dianko, Xen Energy Systems business development manager, said consumers have the option to revert back to the traditional connection and billing system in the next six months.

“After six months, there will be a lock-in period of two years for prepaid electricity consumers. The consumer can shift back to the usual system before that but will have to pay a charge,” Dianko explained.

Dianko said that there will be no additional charge for the meter and the electricity rate for prepaid is the same as postpaid or traditional connection, which is P9/kwh.

Batelec 1, which covers Districts 1 and 2 of Batangas, is hoping other local government units will avail of the prepaid service.

Meanwhile, Batelec 2, which covers the area of Lipa, Rosario, Tanauan, Padre Garcia, Lobo, San Juan, Taysan, Laurel, Talisay, Malvar, Balete, Alitagtag, Cuenca, Mabini, San Jose and Tingloy, has yet to receive bidders for their prepaid services.