By Lenie Lectura - June 3, 2018
THREE power-supply agreements (PSAs)
of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) may not be approved by the Energy
Regulatory Commission (ERC) if the necessary environmental compliance
certificates (ECCs) are not procured within the month.
“We have issued an order for the cases
without ECCs for them to comply within 60 days and the 60th day will fall
sometime on June 20 or June 25. Three of the seven Meralco PSAs pending with us
have no ECC. We gave them an ultimatum. If they don’t succeed within that
period, then we will have to deal with it, most likely dismissal,” ERC Chairman
Agnes VST Devanadera said.
The agency, she added, has issued
orders on six cases seeking ERC approval that have yet to produce ECCs. Of the
six, three are from Meralco’s seven PSAs pending for approval.
The three Meralco PSAs are
contracts with Central Luzon Premiere Power Corp. (CLPPC) and Mariveles Power
Generation Corp. (MPGC) of the San Miguel Group, and Global Luzon Energy
Development Corp. (GLEDC) of Global Business Power Corp. These PSA applications
have yet to be deliberated on since they still lack the ECCs.
Under Section 45 of the Electric
Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, the ERC is mandated to review bilateral
power-supply contracts entered into by distribution utilities.
The ERC’s PSA approval entails a
comprehensive process, which includes the conduct of the hearing, filing of
formal offer of evidence, technical evaluation, commission deliberation and
issuance of a decision.
It was not clear what options are
left for Meralco should it not meet the deadline set by the ERC within which to
hand over the ECCs of the three PSAs.
Devanadera also pointed out that two
ERC commissioners are up for retirement on July 10. If there are no replacement
by then, the agency could not act on the three Meralco PSAs due to lack of
quorum. This, if Meralco will appeal the case.
As a collegial body, the presence of
at least three ERC commissioners is needed to constitute a quorum to enable the
commission to adopt any ruling, order, resolution, decision in the exercise
of its quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative functions.
“I inhibited because I had a
consultancy before that dealt with one of Meralco’s pending PSA case. If two
commissioners will retire and I inhibited then, there are only two left to
sign. If there are no three signatories, then there is no quorum,” the ERC
chief explained.
Meralco First Vice President Ivanna
de la Peña said the company remains hopeful that the new commissioners would be
“practitioners so that the learning curve will not be long.”
“I believe the retirement of the two
commissioners is with certainty in July. Of course, we are hopeful that those
that will be appointed are grounded on the power industry. We are hopeful,
first there should be a quorum, otherwise there will be no decisions made.
We are hopeful that the transition will be fast and they will be put to speed
on the items that will be approved.”
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