ERC cool on no-disconnection extension

By Jordeene B. Lagare January 28, 2021
https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/01/28/business/business-top/erc-cool-on-no-disconnection-extension/833872/

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is not keen on extending the no-disconnection policy introduced last year to alleviate the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on electricity consumers, but will focus on providing them with more options to source power at low cost.

In a virtual event organized by the United States Agency for International Development and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on Wednesday, ERC Commissioner Floresinda Digal said that despite the clamor for it, such an extension would “not be sustainable in the long run, because until now, we don’t know how soon the National Capital Region would be out of a community quarantine.”

The government first put Metro Manila under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in mid-March to curb the spread of the coronavirus. It later relaxed this to modified ECQ (MECQ) in mid-May and general community quarantine (GCQ) in June. It reimposed MECQ for two weeks in August before placing the capital back under GCQ.

“The first advisories that we had [directed] us to [stagger] payments and [suspend] some collections from consumers. We’re basically into rate-reduction efforts during the early stages of the pandemic,” she said.

Early last year, the ERC issued several advisories aimed at reducing the financial burden of power users that were hit hard by the lockdowns. These directed industry players and others to allow the staggered payment of electric bills without interest and penalties, implement a no-disconnection policy for lifeline consumers, and suspend the collection of the feed-in tariff allowance and universal charge-environmental charge from customers.

According to Digal, not all power distributors, especially the country’s 121 electric cooperatives (ECs) — which are created to provide electricity to consumers at the lowest cost — could continue operating if they extend the grace period for unsettled bills.

The advisories also asked power generation and transmission companies to accord the same payment scheme to distribution utilities and ECs.

Manila Electric Co., the country’s largest power distributor, earlier said it won’t disconnect services over nonpayment of electric bills until the end of this month.