by Myrna Velasco January 29, 2016
A ruling of the Court of Appeals has
ordered the parties to go into ‘dispute resolution process’ to sort out an
acceptable settlement on the P234.9 million financial penalties slapped by the
operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) against the Aboitiz
Group’s Therma Mobile Inc. (TMO).
In particular, the appellate court’s
verdict has “directed the parties to continue with the dispute resolution
process under the WESM Rules” and the WESM’s Dispute Resolution Market Manual.
It has to be noted that the CA
granted TMO’s bid for preliminary injunction effectively preventing WESM
operator Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC) from demanding or
collecting the imposed penalties.
Additionally, PEMC has been
disallowed to “charge interest on the financial penalties and having them
accrue.”
The operator of the electricity spot
market was further barred from transmitting the investigation report of its
PEMC- Enforcement and Compliance Office (PEMC-ECO) to the Energy Regulatory
Commission “until the dispute between TMO and PEMC is finally resolved.”
As the parties are highly
anticipated back to the negotiating table, Aboitiz Power president Antonio R.
Moraza has indicated that while they are pleased with the court decision, they
“will dialogue more with PEMC to reach a satisfactory settlement.”
There had been no immediate reaction
from the WESM operator as the matter was still due for PEM Board discussion on
Friday (January 29).
As initially determined by
PEMC-ECO’s probe, it alleged that TMO “withheld capacity during the November
and December 2013 supply period,” and that prompted it to impose the penalties.
The Aboitiz firm, however, insisted
it “did not withhold capacity, as it was physically impossible for (it) to
transmit more than 100 megawatts” to its capacity buyer Manila Electric Company
(Meralco) due to constraint in the transmission lines on those supply-month
duration.
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