Meralco, Millennium Energy seek to fix dispute

April 28, 2016 8:58 pm  by Voltaire Palaña

http://www.manilatimes.net/meralco-millennium-energy-seek-to-fix-dispute/259025/

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is trying to patch things up regarding the issue regarding its distribution wheeling service agreement (DWSA) with Millennium Energy Inc., according to high officials of Meralco.

“I need to sit down with the Millennium people because they were out when I called last week,” Meralco President and CEO Oscar Reyes told reporters. Reyes said that both parties would sit down within a week.

Asked if Meralco was willing to help Millennium, “We want to definitely, we would like their facility to be available and find something that works for both parties,” Reyes said.

In a separate interview earlier, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Zenaida Monsada said that she would like to sit down with both parties separately to fix things up.

But Reyes said, “We can sit down directly with them.  I think the Secretary has more pressing matters so we’ll try to see if we can enter into some kind of viable arrangement with Millenium,” he added.

This month the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) deregistered Millennium in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) effective on April 1.

In its notice, Millenium sought for the cessation of its WESM membership following the non-renewal of the DWSA with Meralco.

‘Wheeling’ is when a distributor transfers or allows the transfer of electricity over its network from a generator to a different customer.

According to Millennium Energy, it is disadvantaged because of the exorbitant rates Meralco is imposing under the DWSA.

Millennium Energy owns the two-unit 310-MW Navotas gas turbine power plant at the Navotas fish port, and the 620-MW Bataan combined cycle power plant in Limay, Bataan.
The DWSA is critical to the Navotas plant in particular, as it is connected only to the Meralco distribution grid and not the national grid as of yet.

Millennium has already met with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in an effort to resolve the dispute affecting its power supply agreement with Meralco.

ERC Chairman and CEO Jose Vicente Salazar earlier told reporters that despite Millennium’s in good faith to tell the commission that the company is losing money and the distribution wheeling charges are too much for them to handle, the company is still responsible for offering the electricity produced by the Navotas facility.

“Since they have the capacity of 100MW, Millennium is obliged to offer this, especially in the summer months. If they cannot dispatch it, then they will be held liable under PEMC rules, because [when] there is a capacity but it is not offered, it has an effect on price,” Salazar said.