(The Philippine Star) | Updated January 28, 2014 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has asked Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla to put on record the Department of Energy’s findings on the supply situation during the one-month maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya gas field.
The ERC asked Petilla to testify in a hearing as part of its ongoing investigation on the record increase implemented by Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor, in its generation charge for December.
The hearing was supposed to be held today (Jan. 28) but was rescheduled to another date, which the ERC has yet to announce.
Petilla earlier said since there was enough supply during the period, it was too early to rule out market collusion among power generators.
“Unless all the findings of the Energy department, the ERC and PEMC (Philippine Electricity Market Corp.) are put together, nothing can be ruled out at this point,” he said.
PEMC is the operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), the country’s trading floor for electricity.
“I was asked to testify to share data and findings on the recent rate hike,” Petilla said.
He said he would be ready to submit whatever data he has gathered to shed light on the reasons behind last year’s record-high increase.
This as Petilla has initiated his own investigation to help ERC determine the reasons for the record increase, which is currently the subject of a 60-day temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court and an ongoing investigation by both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Meralco’s generation charge rose by P3.44 per kilowatt-hour in December to P9.10 per kwh from just P5.67 per kwh in November. This increased further to P10.23 per kwh in January 2014.
The power firm, however, had to peg the generation charge at P5.67 per kwh in deference to the Supreme Court’s TRO.
Meralco attributed the record hike to the use of the more expensive diesel fuel of Luzon power plants as a result of the one-month shutdown of the Malampaya power plant and to unplanned outages of several plants during the shutdown period.
Power generators denied any collusion, pointing instead to the failure of the government to augment supply by running the Malaya plant.
Petilla said he wants to put on record that there was enough supply during the maintenance shutdown of Malampaya gas field as power generators, lawmakers and Meralco have pinned the blame on energy officials for failure to run the 650-megawatt Malaya Thermal Power Plant in Rizal.
“We had more supply in 2013 than in 2010 and yet prices were higher,” Petilla said.
Despite adequate supply, prices were higher at an average of P22.80 per kwh during the 2013 shutdown compared to an average of only P11 to P13 per kwh in February and March 2010 when Malampaya also went on maintenance shutdown.
Prices even reached a high of P62 per kwh after Meralco submitted such an offer, which the market operator cleared as the settlement price. source
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