By Danessa Rivera (The
Philippine Star) | Updated October 24, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines – AC Energy
Holdings Inc. is dipping its foot in the retail energy business, initially
targeting a 50-megawatt (MW) supply in the next three years in line with the
full implementation of retail competition and open access (RCOA).
The Ayala power investment arm has
established itself as a retail electricity supplier (RES) after getting the
necessary license, AC Energy president and CEO John Eric Francia said.
“While we are small and I don’t
think it would be significant, it’s worth mentioning we’re also going to be an
active participant in retail electricity,” he said.
AC Energy does not intend to grow
aggressively in the space, targeting to supply 50 MW at most in three years,
the company official said.
“We’re not going to be big in the
near term. This is just to get to know the business, we want to start serving
some key customers. it will be on an opportunistic, case to case basis,”
Francia said.
AC Energy will complement the
existing RES firms of the Ayala Group under Ayala Land Inc.
Ayala Land’s RES – Direct Power and
Ecozone Power Management Inc. – focuses on its own captive market while AC
Energy will focus on the broader market outside the Ayala Group, Francia said.
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 the generation and supply sector.
Originally, mandatory contestability
for customers with peak demand of one MW is scheduled on Dec. 26, 2016 but this
will be subject to change after legal hurdles for the implementation of the
RCOA scheme.
Earlier, Manila Electric Co.
(Meralco) sought court relief to stop the implementation of new RCOA rules,
particularly distribution utilities (DUs) are not allowed to become a RES,
requiring all DU-related local RES to wind down their businesses in three years
or until expiration of their respective retail supply contracts (RSCs).
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.
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