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By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo, Reporter
THE Energy Regulatory Commission
(ERC) has completed the draft rules on an interim open access scheme
in the power sector that would allow end-users to choose where they
source their electricity.
Under the rules, the proposed
interim open access would only be effective until state-run Power
Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) completes the
Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (Epira) mandate of
selling 70 percent of state-owned National Power Corp.’s (Napocor)
generating and contracted capacity. Epira requires the start of an
open-access scheme upon fulfillment of the asset sale mandate.
As competition ensues, the level
of efficiency in the power sector is expected to improve and the
price of electricity will become competitive “because electricity
providers will strive for service excellence to keep consumers,”
the regulator said.
Delays in the sale of Napocor’s
assets, however, have raised clamor for an interim open access,
which would be voluntary on the part of the new owners of
Napocor’s plants.
In its recently released draft
rules, the ERC said the interim open access scheme can take effect
only upon the transfer of the operation of the Calaca and Masinloc
coal-fired power plants to their new owners.
The ERC said that the draft rules
would undergo public consultations in Luzon on September 4 at the
regulator’s office.
Psalm has yet to close the
privatization of the Calaca plant, which was bid out to French firm
Suez Tractebel’s unit Calaca Holdco Inc. for $787 million, despite
the end of the 270-day count under the asset purchase agreement
signed by both parties on August 4.
However, government officials
earlier said the August 4 date “is a deadline for PSALM to
complete all of its deliverables in the transaction.”
It would be recalled that Suez
had earlier asked the ERC to approve a pending P0.37 per
kilowatt-hour increase in the basic rate petitioned by Napocor
before closing the deal with PSALM.
Suez’s letter to ERC expressed
“concerns raised by the Calaca bidder on the low rates of Napocor,”
which would affect the power supply contract attached to the
facility.
But industry sources said that
the approval of the rate hike may take a while after the regulator
found the increase lower than what Napocor had filed for based on
computations.
Francis Saturnino Juan, ERC
executive director, said that Napocor’s petition for a P0.3685
per kilowatt-hour rate increase excludes the cost of the latter’s
contracts with independent power producers that it wanted included
in the final determination of its adjusted rates. The said
adjustments would drive the rates up to about P0.50 per
kilowatt-hour.
In light of this, Napocor and its
co-applicant PSALM would have to either amend their application to
take these into account or file an entirely new petition, which may
take up to next year to be resolved, Juan said.
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