CA ruling won’t affect other energy projects—Lotilla

By Alena Mae S. Flores – July 17, 2023, 7:08 pm
from manilastandard.net

The Court of Appeals’ ruling in favor of the rate hike petition by San Miguel Corp. would not likely affect other power generation projects, Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said Monday.

Lotilla said in an interview with ANC the Office of Solicitor General was preparing its motion for reconsideration on the CA ruling.

The CA’s 13th Division granted the petitions filed by South Premiere Power Corp. and San Miguel Energy Corp. of the San Miguel Group to annul the ERC orders issued on Sept. 29, 2022, denying the generation companies’ plea for electricity price increase.

The CA granted the motions for price adjustment filed by SPPC and SMEC with ERC, stating that such approval was “without prejudice to further requests for price adjustments.”

“We anticipate while there are possible effects but I don’t think this is , in the long run, going to affect the other projects,” Lotilla said in an interview with ANC.

Lotilla said it would not also expect other power projects of San Miguel Corp., including the 1,200-megawatt Ilijan natural gas plant which is running on liquefied natural gas.

“The situation is evolving and we continue to monitor the situation but I am hopeful this is not going to delay the LNG projects,” the energy chief said.

Lotilla said the LNG facility and SMC’s lijan power plant are expected to be fully functional by August or September.

Meanwhile, the energy chief said it is the job of the ERC to rule on what is fair on power supply contracts.

“That’s always a problem in this particular case. If the courts are going to second guess technical decision of ERC, so it is important to for the courts to look into whether or not there is a technical basis for ERC to act accordingly,” Lotilla said.

“Since this is before the courts, we will allow.  We will respect especially if this is brought up before the  Supreme Court, to lay down appropriate rules on this,” he said.

ERC chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta said the commission wants clarification on the decision, specifically why the CA made the decision and did not remand it back to the ERC.

“If that motion is denied, we can take it all the way to the Supreme Court,” she said.

SMC’s energy arm San Miguel Global Power Corp. said the CA  ruling upholds the constitutional mandate of due process that guarantees the right to be treated fairly and effectively by quasi-judicial bodies.

San Miguel Global said this assured “a fair and balanced regulatory environment that equally protects the rights and interests of all stakeholders involved.”

“It is regrettable that the ERC’s unfair decision early on to reject our joint petition with Meralco for a temporary rate hike — despite proving to be the least cost option at that time for power consumers — resulted in consumers shouldering the burden of much higher electricity rates,” the company said.