Meralco customers sign up for open access

Manila Bulletin 
By Myrna M. Velasco 
Published: July 3, 2013 
Majority of the qualified contestable customers (CCs) within the franchise area of Manila Electric Company (Meralco) are still apparently overwhelmed by direct power supply contracting jitters that only 151 signed up as prospective participants under the retail competition and open access (RCOA).
Based on the utility firm’s validation, about 700 of its customers are “potential contestable customers under open access,” thus, the 151 RCOA registrants with its local retail electricity supplier (RES) unit would considerably be marginal.
The Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC) noted during the commercial kick-off of RCOA last week that only 239 CCs have enlisted compared to the more than 900 which were earlier pre-qualified as RCOA participants.
The PEMC, being the operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WSESM), is the designated central registration body (CRB) for open access participants.
So far, according to the industry stakeholders, about 30-percent of the expected participants joined the RCOA, which is not really a bad number considering the tricky concerns still being resolved under open access policy.
ERC Commissioner Alfredo J. Non is most forthright in his assessment of the RCOA’s implementation, noting that “like any activity, there is always a learning curve. The RCOA is new to all of us. And even the other countries that have implemented it, did not escape this initial adjustment process.”
The listed 151 RCOA participants that enlisted with Meralco RES could infer then “that these CCs have still chosen to stay with the service of the DU which had been supplying them prior to the kick-off of open access in the industry.”
Several others opted to enter into power supply contracts with affiliates, such as in the case of San Miguel Brewery, Inc., which entered into a deal with power generator affiliate San Miguel Energy Corporation.
A number of CCs though seem to have moved notches ahead in securing their power directly from electricity suppliers.
In particular, TeaM Energy Philippines cornered seven customers for a supply deal; while Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd. listed one customer.
DirectPower Services, Inc. which is affiliated with Ayala Land, Inc. also enlisted 29 customers; and the two retail electricity supplier-firms of the Aboitiz Group are as enthusiastic into bringing the restructured power industry’s open access regime to fruition.
Its Aboitiz Energy Solutions, Inc. (AESI) got 45 contestable customers in its RCOA portfolio; while five others listed with Advent Energy, Inc., the groups’ RES intended to cater to economic zone locators.
Energy officials have noted that the RCOA is a major milestone in the deregulation of the power sector because the consumers will finally be gaining their rights to patronize preferred suppliers – bypassing the service of the DUs that they have gotten used to.
But while supply can already be sourced directly from power generators or retail electricity suppliers, the contestable customers will still have to pay for the use of the wires of the transmission and distribution systems because these are essential facilities in bringing electricity to their homes and businesses.   source