ERC may not approve 3 of Meralco’s pending PSAs
By Lenie Lectura – June 3, 2018
from Business Mirror
THREE power-supply agreements (PSAs) of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) may not be approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) if the necessary environmental compliance certificates (ECCs) are not procured within the month.
“We have issued an order for the cases without ECCs for them to comply within 60 days and the 60th day will fall sometime on June 20 or June 25. Three of the seven Meralco PSAs pending with us have no ECC. We gave them an ultimatum. If they don’t succeed within that period, then we will have to deal with it, most likely dismissal,” ERC Chairman Agnes VST Devanadera said.
The agency, she added, has issued orders on six cases seeking ERC approval that have yet to produce ECCs. Of the six, three are from Meralco’s seven PSAs pending for approval.
The three Meralco PSAs are contracts with Central Luzon Premiere Power Corp. (CLPPC) and Mariveles Power Generation Corp. (MPGC) of the San Miguel Group, and Global Luzon Energy Development Corp. (GLEDC) of Global Business Power Corp. These PSA applications have yet to be deliberated on since they still lack the ECCs.
Under Section 45 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, the ERC is mandated to review bilateral power-supply contracts entered into by distribution utilities.
The ERC’s PSA approval entails a comprehensive process, which includes the conduct of the hearing, filing of formal offer of evidence, technical evaluation, commission deliberation and issuance of a decision.
It was not clear what options are left for Meralco should it not meet the deadline set by the ERC within which to hand over the ECCs of the three PSAs.
Devanadera also pointed out that two ERC commissioners are up for retirement on July 10. If there are no replacement by then, the agency could not act on the three Meralco PSAs due to lack of quorum. This, if Meralco will appeal the case.
As a collegial body, the presence of at least three ERC commissioners is needed to constitute a quorum to enable the commission to adopt any ruling, order, resolution, decision in the exercise of its quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative functions.
“I inhibited because I had a consultancy before that dealt with one of Meralco’s pending PSA case. If two commissioners will retire and I inhibited then, there are only two left to sign. If there are no three signatories, then there is no quorum,” the ERC chief explained.
Meralco First Vice President Ivanna de la Peña said the company remains hopeful that the new commissioners would be “practitioners so that the learning curve will not be long.”
“I believe the retirement of the two commissioners is with certainty in July. Of course, we are hopeful that those that will be appointed are grounded on the power industry. We are hopeful, first there should be a quorum, otherwise there will be no decisions made. We are hopeful that the transition will be fast and they will be put to speed on the items that will be approved.”
