Published
By Myrna M. Velasco
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is instituting an interim policy that
will set forth virtual hearings as well as electronic filings of applications
and pleadings for cases that will be up for action and decision of the agency.
But before adopting
such online set-up for the industry, the ERC is soliciting first the comments
and inputs of the relevant industry stakeholders on its proposed guidelines.
“The proposed
guidelines will allow and provide the ERC with a safe means to continuously
perform its mandate amidst the ongoing public health emergency due to
Covid-19,” the regulatory body has noted.
ERC Chairperson Agnes T. Devanadera primarily asked the concerned parties to
submit their comments or raise their position on the interim guidelines on or
before June 11, “so that their inputs and concerns may be considered and form
part of the final guidelines to be promulgated by the Commission.”
The online processes of
the Commission shall cover those on: filing of new quasi-judicial applications
or petitions; filing of pleadings for cases pending before the ERC; as well as
the conduct of virtual hearings and mediations.
The others would delve
with: filing of application for certificate of compliance (COC); retail
electricity suppliers’ license; meter type approval and authority to maintain
meter shops; filing of consumer complaints; submission of reportorial
requirements; and sending of request-letters to the ERC.
“The subject interim
guidelines shall be in effect for the duration of the state of public health
emergency and/or state of calamity, until and unless either or both
declaration/s is or are lifted,” the ERC stressed.
It has to be noted that the ERC is in charge of approving all electricity rates
being passed on to consumers – primarily for regulated entities such as the distribution
utilities (DUs) and electric cooperatives; the National Grid Corporation of the
Philippines (NGCP); and even adjustments in the feed-in-tariff allowance
(FIT-All) being passed on by the National Transmission Corporation.
All the power supply agreements
(PSAs) underwritten by DUs with power generation companies (GenCos) shall also
be approved by the ERC first before their rates can be passed on in the bills
of consumers.
On the commencement as
well as continued operations of power plants, the ERC also has to do technical
inspection as well as render a ruling on the application for certificate of
compliance (COC) of power plant owners/developers and their operators.
For the segment of
big-ticket end-users served by retail electricity suppliers (RES), their
licenses would also need an approval from the regulatory body before they could
operate and serve consumers.
All these filings and applications as well as dispute cases in the industry
will require conduct of hearings – which the ERC is now proposing to be done
virtually while the coronavirus pandemic still lingers.
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