April 12, 2018 | 9:47 pm
THE Department of Energy (DoE) is
studying the legality of becoming the issuer of licenses for retail electricity
suppliers, a function currently taken up by the Energy Regulatory Commission
(ERC) but put on hold by a court order on rules governing retail competition
and open access (RCOA).
“The Secretary (Alfonso G. Cusi)
ordered us to look into it because we can no longer wait for other agencies to
act on these things,” Energy Undersecretary Felix William B. Fuentebella told
reporters.
“At the end of the day, the DoE will
always push forward with its power of choice campaign. So no agency nor company
can further delay this order of the secretary,” he said.
“We have to act. So that’s the
direction,” he added.
Mr. Fuentebella said the DoE was
looking at a policy that would allow it to be the party to handle the
licensing.
“We’re looking at the entire
situation right now,” he added, referring to the stalled regulations after the
issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) by the Supreme Court on Feb.
21, 2017.
RCOA was meant to give retail
electricity suppliers (RES) access to the power distribution network as they serve
electricity users whose consumption has grown to reach the threshold set by the
ERC. These big “contestable” power users are mandated to buy their electricity
from a licensed RES, moving them out of the captive market of a distribution
utility.
Some sectors, including educational
institutions, questioned the mandatory provision of the RCOA rules before the
Supreme Court. The TRO came out at time when the threshold was about to be
lowered to 750 kilowatts (kW).
The ERC has opted to wait for the
high court’s decision on the issue. But the DoE opted to issue new rules that
dropped the questioned provisions of RCOA, specifically its “mandatory” aspect.
In the meantime, several RES licenses have expired or about to expire,
resulting in uncertainty in the supply for those who previously contracted with
the retail suppliers.
Thus far, only those consuming a
monthly average of 1 megawatt (MW) remain contestable customers, leaving the
retail electricity suppliers to compete for a slice of a limited market.
Mr. Fuentebella said the policy that
would spell out the DoE’s function as issuer of RES licenses might be included
in the upcoming rules on the Green Energy Option (GEO), a scheme that allows
customers the option to be supplied only with renewable energy sources.
Unlike the RCOA rules, GEO will
cover consumers with an electricity usage as low as 100 kW, which he described
as those with two- to three-storey buildings. — Victor V. Saulon
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