ERC delays schedule of open access

by Alena Mae S. Flores – November 01, 2016 at 11:56 pm

from Manila Standard Today

The Energy Regulatory Commission issued a draft resolution amending the schedule of mandatory retail competition and open access, which allows large power users to choose their own suppliers.

ERC said in a draft resolution that end users with an average monthly peak demand of at least 1 megawatt were mandated to enter into supply contracts with a retail electricity supplier by Feb. 26, 2017.

The regulator earlier imposed a December 2016 deadline for the retail supply contracts. The draft resolution, however, is still subject to comments by industry players.

ERC said the December 2016 timeline was no longer feasible for the contestable customers or those with a monthly demand of at least 1 MW to negotiate and migrate to the competitive retail electricity market.

The draft resolution did not include a new timeline for customers with a monthly peak demand of 750 kilowatts who were supposed to get their own retail electricity suppliers by June 16, 2017.

ERC chairman Jose Vicente Salazar earlier said the regulator wanted to give existing power distributors enough window to conform to the requirement.

The Supreme Court earlier supported ERC’s open access guidelines and slapped a temporary restraining order on Oct. 10 against an earlier injunction issued by the Pasig regional trial court.

The Pasig RTC earlier halted the implementation of the RCOA guidelines by the ERC.

“The one-megawatt market is just our starting point, and we aim to eventually include even the large residential customers in the near-future,” Salazar said.