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By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo Reporter
The Energy Regulatory Commission
(ERC) granted a retail electricity supplier license to GNPower
Mariveles Coal Plant Ltd. Co. (GMCP), allowing the power generator
to market its electricity to consumers at the onset of retail
competition and open access in the industry.
“The entry of GMCP in the
electric power industry is a welcome development as this signals the
advent of customer empowerment through increased choices of
suppliers,” Rodolfo B. Albano Jr., ERC chairman, said.
GMPC is the country’s fourth
such licensee after GNPower, Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development
Corp. (TA Oil), and Aboitiz Energy Solutions, Inc. (AESI).
The company, in partnership with
GNPower Ltd. Co., is set to put up a 600-megawatt clean pulverized
coal-fired electric power generation facility in Mariveles, Bataan,
at a cost of about $860 million. GNPower expects the plant to be
fully operational by December 2010.
As a licensed retail supplier,
GMCP is authorized to sell, broker, market or aggregate electricity
to end-users when retail competition and open access begins. The
government is banking on this to help lower the country’s power
rates, which is the second highest in the region.
GMCP intends to be the main
generator or supplier of GNPower customers.
Under the Electric Power Industry
Reform Act of 2001 (Epira), the said schemes, whereby consumers may
choose their power suppliers, will ensue after state-run Power
Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) completes the
law’s two remaining conditions.
These are the privatization of 70
percent of state-owned National Power Corp.’s generating capacity
and the transfer of 70 percent of the management and control of the
total energy output of its contracted third party power plants to
independent power producer administrators.
“Customer choice, which is the
ultimate goal of the electric power industry restructuring, will
soon be realized. Electricity consumers and stakeholders should
brace themselves for the demands and challenges that will come along
with the new development,” Albano said.
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