CSP is working
Consumer rights advocacy group Bantay Konsyumer, Kalsada, at Kuryente (BK3) welcomes positive developments in the energy sector that would benefit all consumers.
Based on latest reports from Meralco itself, from P4.9039 per kWh last month, electricity bills for February dropped to P4.5090 per kWh — down by P0.3949 per kWh.
Due to the Competitive Selection Process (CSP) that have led to new supply agreements between Meralco and two suppliers for brownfield capacity, electricity prices have dropped significantly to P4.0372 per kWh average while contributing 21% of Meralco’s supply.
For its next step, we call on Meralco to contract supply from new power plants to ensure efficient, dependable and reliable power supply.
We call on DOE and ERC to work together and support the building if new power plants in order to add capacity to the system which we badly need at this point. We can no longer rely on old and aging plants that often conk out and go offline especially during summer.
Moreover, taxes and other government-imposed charges have also gone down by P0.2839 per kWh! For instance, Feed-In-Tariff Allowance (FIT-All) dropped by P0.1731 per kWh after the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approved a lower FIT-All rate of P0.0495 per kWh compared to the previous subsidy of P0.2226 per kWh.
Meralco has reported that their distribution, supply, and metering charges have remained unchanged for 55 months since their last reductions in July 2015.
“There is a lesson we must draw from all these: We can further lower the price of electricity!” BK3 Convener Patrick Climaco pointed out.
Climaco noted that: “First, BK3 is calling for faster processing of more CSPs! The ERC has warned that electricity supply will be very tight as summer months approach. We need new, efficient and reliable power plants to meet fast growing demand. Shortage of power supply creates opportunity for cartel like behavior of power generation companies forcing jacked up prices in the WESM. This has happened before. ”
“We will be watching the behavior of power plants especially those who will have sudden, unscheduled shutdowns,” Climaco said.