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SUNDAY, 19 JUNE 2011 18:05 PAUL ANTHONY A. ISLA
THE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s largest power retailer, said on Friday it has sought the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) approval for its petition to be licensed as a Retail Electricity Supplier (RES).
In its manifestation, Meralco said it will put up a local RES that will be operational at the start of the planned Open Access and Retail Competition (OARC) regime.
When OARC is implemented, power-generating companies will be allowed to directly supply commercial establishments and industries consuming an average of 1 megawatt a month—also called the contestable market—providing competition to distribution utilities.
An RES license is issued to an entity authorized by the ERC to sell, broker, market or aggregate electricity to the contestable market in which end-users will have a choice of a supplier of electricity.
The ERC has recently set December 26, 2011 as the start of open access to mark the start of the competitive retail electricity market in Luzon and the Visayas.
Oscar Reyes, Meralco senior executive vice president and chief operating officer, said they have set up their own RES that will allow clients to choose their electricity provider while continuing to experience the full services of Meralco.
Reyes said Meralco is of the opinion that they need to provide the customers the option to be given full service.
Reyes said he hopes customers will still consider Meralco as an option among other service providers. “We hope that our customers will continue to source their power needs from us, along with a range of other services that we provide,” Reyes said.
Meralco will have a very competitive electricity supply portfolio sourced from existing generating plants and from new highly efficient baseload, mid-merit and peaking power plants its power-generation arm is putting up.
Meanwhile, SN Aboitiz Power (SNAP)—the hydropower joint venture of SN Power of Norway and AboitizPower Corp.—said it has received its RES license from ERC.
SNAP said the license will allow them to compete in the contestable market upon the implementation of open access and retail competition.
“SNAP, through SNAP-RES, is proud to support the growing electric power industry in the Philippines by offering reliable and affordable electricity to consumers and end-users,” Emmanuel Rubio, SNAP president and chief executive officer, said.
SNAP owns and operates the 360-MW Magat plant on the border of Ramon, Isabela and Alfonso Lista in Ifugao, as well as the 105-MW Ambuklao plant in Bokod and the 100-MW Binga plant in Tinongdan, both situated in the province of Benguet.
Through the OARC system, retail electricity providers can customize their supply packages to provide customers with the best value based on their power consumption profile and other preferences.
(Paul A. Isla)
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