Listed Manila Electric Co., the country’s largest power distributor and better known as Meralco, on Sunday said it will immediately comply with the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) directive to refund about P9.5 billion to customers, backing the government’s push to deliver quicker and more transparent electricity bill relief.
The refund will be spread over six months and will translate to an average credit of P0.34 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Residential consumers will receive a bigger average refund of about P0.59 per kWh, with the adjustment reflected as a separate line item in monthly electricity bills.
The company emphasized that the latest refund was not imposed after a dispute but stemmed from applications it voluntarily filed with the ERC in 2025 and early 2026. Those filings covered the periods from January to June 2025 and July to December 2025.
The refund represents the difference between Meralco’s Actual Weighted Average Tariff (AWAT) and its approved distribution tariff during those periods. According to the utility, stronger-than-expected electricity consumption by residential customers pushed its AWAT above the approved rate, triggering the regulatory “true-up” mechanism that requires excess collections to be returned.
Meralco said the process is part of the ERC’s standard regulatory framework applied to all private distribution utilities. Depending on a utility’s customer mix and electricity sales, the mechanism could either result in refunds or additional collections. In Meralco’s case, it sought refunds rather than additional charges.
The latest approval adds to a series of customer reimbursements implemented by the country’s largest power distributor. Meralco previously refunded P40.5 billion covering July 2015 to June 2022 between March 2021 and May 2023. It is also implementing an ongoing P20-billion refund for the July 2022 to December 2024 period that began in April 2025.
The development underscores how regulatory true-up mechanisms are becoming an increasingly visible consumer protection tool as authorities intensify efforts to ease electricity costs while maintaining transparency in power pricing.
