ERC: Implications of high court’s PSA ruling ‘massive’

By Jordeene B. Lagare – May 11, 2019
from The Manila Times

THE Supreme Court’s (SC) recent decision to subject power supply agreements (PSAs) made on or after June 2015 to public bidding presents “massive” implications, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said.

In a roundtable discussion on Friday, ERC Chairman Agnes Devanadera said the agency would present before the SC the “implications of the decisions,” although it was yet to receive a copy of the promulgation.

“I still believe that if we can present statistics and clarification, SC will not go for something leading to disasters,” Devanadera said. “We go back to the SC and present the big picture translated into statistics.”

Devanadera said the high court’s resolution on the complaint filed by consumer group Alyansa ng Bagong Pilipinas Inc. against the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) affected “more or less 95 contracts,” including the seven power deals of the country’s largest power distributor with its affiliates.

The ERC is yet to conclude the actual inventory of affected PSAs, as it is gathering more data.

Meralco has power deals with Redondo Peninsula Energy Inc., Atimonan One Energy Inc., St. Raphael Power Generation Corp., Central Luzon Premiere Power Corp., Mariveles Power Generation Corp., Panay Energy Development Corp. and Global Luzon Energy Development Corp.

The ERC chief said that, of the total number of affected contracts, some of them were already approved and about to end.