April 23, 2019 | 12:33 am
THE PHILIPPINE
Competition Commission (PCC) will check allegations of collusion among power
plant operators amid recent outages “that may have contributed to price
increases in the retail electricity market,” the watchdog said in a press
release on Monday.
“The recent spate of
scheduled and forced outages in Luzon by different power plants has reportedly
reduced power reserves, caused calls for red or yellow alerts, and induced
rotating brownouts, which in turn sparked complaints from the public,” the PCC
said.
“The PCC shall assess
whether the recent power plants’ outages are manipulated to increase
electricity prices or are valid unplanned breakdowns that affect supply
conditions.”
In a mobile phone
message, PCC Chairman Arsenio M. Balisacan clarified that the watchdog was
“looking into the recent series of shutdowns and assessing if it merits an
investigation.”
Sought for comment,
Emmanuel V. Rubio, chief operating officer of Aboitiz Power Corp., said he was
not aware of such an issue, while senior officials of other firms involved such
as TeaM Energy Corp. and South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp. did not respond to
requests for comment.
“The PCC warns power
generation companies from engaging in anti-competitive or collusive behavior
which is punishable under the competition law with fines of up to P250 million
and imprisonment of responsible officers of up to seven years,” the statement
read, referring to Republic Act No. 10667 or the Philippine Competition Act.
The PCC also said it
welcomes technical reports or audits by the Department of Energy, as well as
any lead or information from the public or experts in the field.
“We look forward to the
report that DoE will send us as it will help with our assessment,” Mr.
Balisacan said of the Department of Energy. “The DoE has previously referred a
similar matter to the PCC and that is being treated as a separate
investigation.”
The PCC said it is
talking with DoE and the Energy Regulatory Comm ission for a memorandum of
agreement “to facilitate market competition and investigations in the power
sector.” — Janina C. Lim
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