By:
Ronnel W. Domingo - 05:09 AM May 14,
2019
The Energy Regulatory
Commission (ERC) was able to act on applications from electricity distribution
utilities and other power industry players to be allowed to spend capital
investments totaling P26.4 billion over the past seven months.
This whittles down the
ERC’s backlog of pending cases, which its chair Agnes Devanadera earlier said
involved a total of about P1.59 trillion in investments from both local and foreign
entities.
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Floresinda B. Digal,
who heads the ERC’s regulatory operations services, said there were still 182
pending cases related to capital expenditures.
“Since September 2018,
the Commission has approved capex cases valued at a total of P26.35 billion,”
Digal said.
The lawyer said that,
for capex cases alone, the ERC had 10 technical personnel assigned to evaluate
the voluminous documents involved.
There are also 454
cases related to power supply agreements (PSAs) that need further action from
the ERC—including 154 cases that would affect whether or not power plants would
be built.
Digal said the ERC had
14 technical personnel evaluating PSA-related cases, each of which takes 90 to
180 days to evaluate.
But while the ERC has
been steadily reducing its backlog, a decision of the Supreme Court to require
competitive bidding for seven PSAs involving Manila Electric Co. is expected to
add to the regulator’s pile of uncompleted work.
Devanadera said the
High Court’s decision would affect about 90 contracts between distribution
utilities and generation companies, similar to those of Meralco’s.
Last week, the Supreme
Court said in a statement all PSAs that power distributors submitted to the ERC
on or after June 30, 2015, should be subjected to a competitive selection
process.
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