(The Philippine Star) | Updated June 18, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines -
Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has secured court approval for its request to
stop new rules on the retail competition and open access (RCOA) issued by the
government until certain issues are ironed out.
In an order dated June
13, Pasig Regional Trial Court - Branch 157 presiding Judge Gregorio Vega Jr.
granted Meralco’s plea for a temporary restraining order (TRO), enjoining the
Department of Energy (DOE) and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) from implementing
the new RCOA rules.
“The said temporary
restraining order shall be effective for a period of 20 days from service to
respondents DOE and ERC of this order,” Gregorio said in the court order.
The Pasig RTC court set
a hearing of the case on June 23 and June 28, if needed.
Last May 27, Meralco
sought court relief after the DOE and ERC issued new RCOA rules which it
claimed are not in accordance with Republic Act 9136 or the Electric Power
Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) and its implementing rules and regulations.
Under the RCOA regime,
end-users that are part of the contestable market, or contestable customers,
are given the choice to choose their supplier of electricity aimed to foster
competition in in the generation and supply sector.
Meralco currently supplies
to contestable customers through its local retail electricity supplier (RES)
MPower. To date, MPower accounts for about 50 percent of the market share of
the contestable market within its franchise, or 18 percent of the total
nationwide.
A local RES is defined
as entities under a distribution utility (DU) that may engage in the business
of supplying electricity to the contestable market without need of obtaining a
license from the ERC.
However, the recent
issuances of DOE and ERC related to RCOA rules will stop MPower from operating
and will limit the power of choice of consumers, and therefore, should be
declared null and void, Meralco said.
In DOE Circular
DC2015-06-0010, any DU is not allowed to become a RES beyond its franchise
area. It also ordered existing local RES to stop operating until the expiration
of their respective retail supply contracts (RSCs).
Meanwhile, the ERC
issued Resolution No. 5, requiring all interested parties to supply to the
contestable market to secure a RES license while all DUs aspiring to become a
RES are subject to restrictions.
In Resolution No. 10,
the ERC removed the “local RES” in the list where RCOA rules apply and provided
a timeline mandatory migration of contestable customers to RCOA.
ERC Resolution No. 11,
meanwhile, disallowed any DU to retail electricity to the contestable market
and ordered all local RES to wind down their operations in three years once the
rules take effect.
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