Published February 12, 2018, 10:00
PM By Myrna M. Velasco
Retail power suppliers affiliated
with the Retail Electricity Suppliers Association Inc. (RESA) are seeking the
imprimatur of the Department of Energy (DOE) for a parallel policy issuance
allowing them to offer continued service to customers even with the expiration
of their licenses.
The power retailers are similarly
situated with those of the power plants without certificates of compliance
(COCs) or permits to operate because of the lingering impasse at the Energy
Regulatory Commission.
In a formal correspondence to Energy
Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi, RESA President Raymond R. Roseus indicated that of
the 30 licensed retail electricity suppliers (RES), “seven have licenses which
have expired with pending applications that have yet to be acted upon.”
He added that the number had not
even included yet those entities “which have made submissions to the ERC for
issuance of a RES license.”
It is worth noting that in the case
of the power plants with expired COCs or permits to operate, the DOE has
initiated the issuance of a resolution with the Philippine Electricity Market
Corporation (PEMC) allowing such power facilities to offer their capacities in
the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) even without COCs, just so
Filipino won’t suffer power supply interruptions.
“We note the previous Circulars your
office has issued to ensure the continued operation of the supply sector,
however, with the current legal issues affecting the operation of the ERC, we
wish to seek your support for a measure that will provide a similar solution to
the supply sector,” Roseus has stipulated in his letter to the DOE chief.
In the case of the RES entities,
those with expired licenses if unable to operate, cannot also offer continued
service – to the detriment of their customers.
For Luzon and Visayas grids wherein
retail competition and open access (RCOA) is already in force, customers in the
contestable market account for 33.86-percent of system peak.
Contestable customers are those
segments of end-users who can already exercise their power of choice in
underwriting contracts with preferred electricity suppliers. Their service
needs are typically catered to by retail electricity suppliers.
Retail power customers with
contracts, it was emphasized, account for 917 subscribers with aggregate demand
of 2,326.49 megawatts.
Both the ERC and DOE have already
pleaded several times to Malacañang on immediate appointment of acting
Commissioners, but legal review of parameters on temporary appointments had
apparently been taking time.
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