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By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo, Reporter
DISTRIBUTORS sourcing power from the Wholesale
Electricity Spot Market (WESM) should enjoy incentives if their
transactions lead to lower power rates and penalties if otherwise,
according to the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC).
Lasse Holopainen, president of the WESM
operator, said such an incentive scheme will protect consumers while
waiting for open access and retail competition in the power sector
to kick in.
“For instance, you have a reference price of
P5 per kilowatt hour. If a distribution utility gets to procure
electricity rates at a lower price, what if you can retain at least
five percent of the savings retained as profit to the distributor?
Now on the other hand, if you got electricity at slightly a higher
price than the reference price, there should be at least a small
penalty of say one-percent,” Holopainen said.
High power rates at the WESM last March were
blamed for a spike in the electricity bills of Manila Electric
Co.’s (Meralco) customers. The rate up tick in turn was due to
strong demand and intermittent operations of the country’s
coal-fired power plants.
The cost of power that Meralco sources from its
suppliers is passed on to consumers through the generation charge
component in their bills. The country’s largest distribution
utility sources less than 10 percent of its requirements from the
spot market.
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