by Myrna Velasco, 21 June 2015
from Manila Bulletin

Special arrangements are being mulled for the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and other “special economic zones” in the mandatory phase of retail competition and open access (RCOA) in the power industry.

This was indicated by Commissioner Alfredo J. Non of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in a recent power industry forum wherein he laid down the regulatory body’s rules prescription path for the mandatory RCOA as targeted by September 30 this year.

He reiterated that “special arrangements for PEZA, BCDA (Bases Conversion and Development Authority) and industrial estates may be considered upon application with the ERC.”

The retail competition regime in the power sector will allow the qualified contestable customers to already contract their own electricity needs with their preferred suppliers or power retailers.

At mandatory RCOA regime, it was proposed that the threshold will already be brought down to the 750 kilowatts (kW) usage level form the 1.0-megawatt at voluntary-transitory phase two years ago.

Non has specified that new licensing rules for retail electricity suppliers (RES) shall be issued by the ERC upon the formulation of the RCOA’s revised rules.

The ERC Commissioner has noted that the regulatory body will just issue new RES licenses when the new rules are issued and enforced. By then, it will be observing the prohibitions and restrictions stipulated in the revised RES Rules.

The same policy enforcement shall be prescribed for the issuance of certificates of contestability for those qualifying in the lower RCOA threshold of 750kW.

While the mandatory RCOA phase is targeted end-September, policy fine-tuning and rules formulation may stretch until December, Non indicated, so the ERC can fully engage stakeholders’ attention at its consultation processes.

The ERC shall also be integrating modified rules on aggregation; and shall be harmonizing such with the Demand Aggregation and Supply Auctioning Policy (DASAP) set forth by the Department of Energy.