Published June 6, 2018, 10:00 PM By Myrna M.
Velasco
The chief of the Energy Regulatory
Commission (ERC) will be pulling strings so the regulatory body can keep pace
with its target to successfully decide on at least 1,000 pending cases until
the first quarter of 2019.
Reckoned from the set timeline, ERC
Chairperson Agnes T. Devanadera noted that the Commission will have at least
nine months from now to complete all deliberation processes as well as
promulgation of the warranted decisions.
“We currently have 1,000 cases
targeted for decision…we will likely finish all of them by first quarter of
2019,” she said, relative to the ERC’s zero-backlog aspiration on their
handling of cases as well as on their rule-setting function.
Devanadera qualified that prioritization
of cases to be acted upon had been weighed based on either importance as well
as the ‘age’ as to when these filings have been pending with the regulatory
body.
“We are balancing our action on
these cases – some shall be according to importance. We also considered
geographic factors as well as the urgency of cases, because we have seen cases
that are already 2-4 years old at the Commission,” she stressed.
On the zero-backlog target, she
explained that this will not mean totally dispensing all cases at the ERC
within a certain timeframe, “there will always be new filings and applications,
so it will never get to zero. But what we are targeting, we shall at least be
up-to-date in deciding cases.”
Fundamentally, the ERC is often
blamed as the ‘slow performer’ when it comes to sorting out regulatory rules
and case approvals sought by investors, but the Commission is now advancing
word that it will step up on its processes.
One crucial step it had taken toward
this goal is embracing ‘digital portal’ on its operation, hence, this raises
hope that this will finally end its snail-paced function mode.
For regulated entities, the ERC will
be formally launching this month its Web Portal for Interactive and Systematic
Exchange (eWISE), which it aligns as a weapon in “improving regulatory
efficiency and effectiveness and to better manage regulatory work.”
It explained that the eWISE shall be
an “interactive portal between regulated entities and the ERC to manage
submissions and track regular filings, requests for approval and other
requirements.”
Beyond digitalizing its systems
though, faster and more determined actions are expected from the ERC when it
comes to the pending power supply agreements (PSAs) and other applications
because these are extremely necessary before investors could kick off new
projects that shall meet the country’s energy needs.
On the whole, the ERC noted that
this will “streamline the regulatory processes necessary to achieve the zero
backlog target, automate data validation and ensure web portal security.”
This computerized system of the
ERC’s processes had been concretized through consultancy support from
Australian firm Castalia Strategic Advisors; as well as Steve Roe and
Associates.
Specifically, the recommendations
had been to modify and streamline the regulatory agency’s works on capital
expenditure (capex) rules; power supply agreements (PSA) and the rules for
setting electric cooperatives’ wheeling rates.
Devanadera said the regulating
body’s “shift to the eWISE system serves as a catalyst as it introduces a new
and better way of doing things in the ERC.”
She qualified that the Commission
highly recognized “the need to equip the employees with the proper
knowledge and skills to facilitate the transition stage and ensure the success
of the ERC’s eWISE project.”
To prepare ERC employees on this
platform shift, they had to undergo change management workshop the previous
months, primarily to capacitate them “in managing the transition stage and to
craft a communication plan to address the issues relative to the implementation
of the eWise project.”
Further, the ERC’s forward direction
on reset processes on the tariff setting of regulated power utilities via
performance-based regulation (PBR) is now direly needed; with many utilities
already failing on rate adjustments in the past two to three years.
With all the investments already
undertaken by regulated power entities, it is expected that tariffs passed on
to consumers may have already gone down, but because of the regulatory lag
directly attributed to ERC’s sluggish system, consumers cannot benefit yet from
any expected cost relief.
No comments:
Post a Comment