By | Jan. 11, 2014 at 12:01am
THE state-run Energy Regulatory Commission said Friday it will include in its investigation of the alleged collusion to charge consumers higher power prices the new power rates that Manila Electric Co. will charge its customers for January.
ERC spokesman Francis Saturnino Juan confirmed that Meralco had made a presentation for a new P4.56 per-kilowatt-hour increase in its power generation charge in January.
That would on top of the deferred P4.15 per-kilowatt-hour generation charge it announced for December last year but which it had to defer as a result of a Supreme Court order.
Meralco claims it must bill its customers higher charges because it had to buy more expensive electricity from the spot market as a result of the shutdown of the Malampaya gas plant and other power plants.
But angry consumers claim that the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market has been colluding with Meralco to charge higher prices as a result of such shutdowns.
Malacañng said Friday its information campaign on the looming increase in Meralco’s power charges was aimed at assuring the public that the government is doing something to protect their interest.
Presidential Communication Operations Office Secretary Sonny Coloma also said that the Malampaya funds could not be used to subsidize the consumers’ power consumption, although the Palace’s legal team was still studying how it could be used, together with the President’s social fund, to cushion the impact of the power rate increases.
“The thrust of the campaign is show that the government is responsive,” Coloma said.
But the left-leaning group Bayan Muna on Friday accused the Aquino administration of being useless in addressing the looming increase in Meralco’s power charges.
Group secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. also accused Meralco of blackmailing the Supreme Court into upholding its higher charges by warning of rolling blackouts if it failed to pay for the electricity it had bought from the spot market and other power-producing companies.
“Meralco continues to terrorize consumers with threats of power interruptions if the higher rates are not implemented. This is unacceptable,” Reyes said.
“Meralco has grown so big and powerful that it thinks it is above the law. It wants us to believe that everyone is at fault except Meralco.”
Meralco claims that its power generation cost went up by a record P4.56 per kilowatt hour in January as more power plants went on scheduled and unscheduled outages in December. It says that means the cost of power generation climbed by more than P8 per kilowatt hour from November.
The impact of the eight-pesos-per-kilowatt-hour charge to consumers, however, will not yet be passed on to them due to the 60-day temporary restraining order on Meralco issued by the Supreme Court as a result of the cases brought before it by consumers.
Meralco claims that the average electricity charges at the wholesale electricity spot market climbed to P36.0846 per kilowatt hour in December from P33.2160 in November. With Joyce P. Pañares source
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