posted February 15, 2016 at 11:10 pm by Alena
Mae S. Flores
The Energy Regulatory Commission is
set to start the hearings against 12 companies for alleged anti-competitive
behavior within the first quarter of the year.
ERC’s investigating unit filed
complaints in June last year against 12 companies for anti-competitive market
behavior that led to price spikes during the Malampaya maintenance shutdown in
November to December 2013.
“We want to emphasize that this is
actually priority for us. So the cases will be prioritized over all other
cases, we know the public is now awaiting our resolution with respect to this
issue,” ERC chairman Jose Vicente Salazar told reporters.
The 12 companies are Power Sector
Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (for Malaya and Casecnan plants);
Therma Mobile Inc.; Manila Electric Co., 1590 Energy; CIP II Power Corp;
Trans-Asia Power Generation Corp.; AP Renewables Inc.; Udenna Management
Resources Corp; Strategic Power Development; GN Power Mariveles and SEM-Calaca
Power Corp.
“I guess we have to already move on
whether there is liability on the part of the respondents, whether we already
say they are not liable at all. We will definitely start before end of the
quarter,” Salazar said, adding the agency wanted to wrap up the investigation
before the end of the year.
Commissioner Gloria Victoria
Yap-Taruc said the commission was still “grappling with scheduling” due to
other pending priority cases.
“We are also doing our independent
study. We are taking a look at possible structures to be able to move forward,”
she said.
She said the rules of the ERC
allowed the application of methods under the rules of court.
“We’re seriously considering a
board, or a tribunal, composed of only three or a hearing officer. We’re
seriously studying what the constitutive body will be,” Yap-Taruc said.
The cases filed against the 12
companies for anti-competitive behavior at the Wholesale Electricity Spot
Market was the result of the report of the investigating unit that was
completed after more than a year.
The Electric Power Industry Reform
Act of 2001 said “no participant in the electricity industry or any other
person may engage in any anti-competitive behavior including, but not limited
to, cross-subsidization, price or market manipulation, or other unfair trade
practices detrimental to the encouragement and protection of contestable
markets.”
The Malampaya shutdown caused a
spike in power rates for December 2013 and January 2014, prompting
non-government groups and other petitioners to file a temporary restraining
order at the Supreme Court.
The SC ruled in favor of the
petitioners and stopped the implementation of the P4.15 per kilowatt-hour
increase in power rates for the month of December.
The Malampaya shutdown coupled with
the scheduled and unscheduled shutdown of several power plants caused the
sudden spike at the WESM, the country’s trading floor of electricity.
Meralco’s power rates rose P4.15 per
kWh for December 2013 and P5.30 per kWh increase for January 2014, inclusive of
other charges such as system loss, taxes and transmission costs.
Meralco, however, was unable to pass
on to consumers the P4.15 per kWh increase in power rates in December due to a
temporary Supreme Court restraining order still in effect until today.
The P5.30 per kWh rate increase for
January, however, was recalculated as a result of the decision of the ERC
to void the WESM charges for the November and December billing months.
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