By Lenie Lectura - August 6, 2019
THE Energy Regulatory Commission
(ERC) and the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) signed Monday a
memorandum of agreement (MOA) that allows both agencies to jointly conduct
investigations related to competition matters in the power industry.
“Our MOA with ERC exhibits how
the competition agency and sector regulators play complementary roles in
promoting competition in the sector while fulfilling their respective
mandates.
“Our partnership allows for
the sharing of information and coordination of enforcement actions toward a
more robust competition landscape in the energy sector,” said PCC Chairman
Arsenio M. Balisacan.
In particular, PCC’s
partnership with ERC allows for the conduct of joint fact-finding inquiries. It
also facilitates consultations with institutions or firms such as the
Philippine Electricity Market Corp., the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines
and generation companies to obtain relevant information.
The MOA between ERC and PCC comes a
month after PCC’s MOA with the Department of Energy (DOE).
The MOA between PCC and DOE
established collaborative mechanisms such as information sharing, investigation
support, joint task forces and, continued capacity building and
consultations.
A tripartite task force between PCC,
DOE and ERC was formed ahead of the MOA to coordinate inquiries on alleged
collusion or abuses of dominance in the power industry through information
exchange and fact-finding, given the policy mandate of the DOE, the regulatory
functions of the ERC, and the market competition lens of the PCC.
The three agencies are expected to
make headway in probing allegations of collusion or abuse of dominance amid a
series of shutdowns among power plants that may have contributed to increases
in electricity prices earlier this year.
The PCC earlier announced a launch
of an assessment on whether the power plants’ outages were manipulated to
increase electricity prices or were valid unplanned breakdowns that affect supply
conditions.
“The PCC and ERC recognize the merit
of adopting a coordinated approach toward the shared goal of promoting
competition in the power industry. We are confident our combined expertise and
investigative capacities will lead to a stronger push for competition
enforcement in this critical sector,” Balisacan said.
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