High power rates pushing electronic companies to invest outside of PH

Manila Times.net

Written by Madelaine B. Miraflor  Published on 13 February 2013

Because of the country’s higher power rates, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industry in the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI) has seen some of its member companies opting to do expansion in other countries.

”Several SEIPI member-companies have re-evaluated their expansion plans and others opted to expand in other locations outside the Philippines as a result of continued increase of local electricity rates,” the group said in a statement.

SEIPI specified that the industry was hampered not only by a global slump in trade and consumer demand but also by adverse local factors, such as the high cost of local electricity, which erodes the

sector’s profitability and its ability to increase overseas deliveries.

For this year, SEIPI said that it is anticipating a turnaround as new factories start operating and selling overseas their products that include mobile phone chips and microprocessors for computers.

”The sector’s anticipated growth, however, hinges on the quality and cost of electricity in the country,” the group noted.

SEIPI said that it is closely monitoring the status of several big-ticket infrastructure power projects in the country.

“These infrastructure power projects are needed to assure not only a reliable, but [also] inexpensive supply of electricity for both the new and the existing factories in the electronics industry, as well as in other sectors of the economy,” the company said.

SEIPI said that it is are aware that some of the power projects are facing legal and policy hurdles.

”This predicament dims out hopes that these projects could provide an immediate aid to concerns about the high cost and unreliability of electricity supply in our country,” the group said.

SEIPI also said that there is a need for the government to exert extra effort and remove the legal and policy obstacles affecting the vital infrastructure power projects, and that an equal weight should be accorded in considering the advantages of a stable and reliable supply of cheap electricity in the country.

For his part, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said that the Department of Energy is speeding up its implementation of the Retail Competition and Open Access (RCOA) to reduce power rates.   source