New Power Regulation to ultimately hurt consumers
Power sector watchdog Bantay Kuryente in a statement recently lauded the move of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PCCI), Ateneo De Manila University, San Beda College (Alabang) and mall owner Riverbanks Development Corporation in challenging before the Supreme Court questionable energy policies being pushed by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
Bantay Kuryente Secretary General Pet Climaco said “this shows that there is multi-sectoral opposition to the ERC’s new policy.”
Bantay Kuryente laments the recently issued retail competition and open access (RCOA) policy regulations of the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
Under this latest policy, consumers with a peak demand of at least 1 MW have until February 26, 2017 to comply with the new rules. To comply, consumers will be forced to break-out of existing contracts and enter into new deals with new suppliers even at higher cost.
According to Climaco “the policy will only result in higher electricity prices for consumers and businesses alike.” Climaco further criticized the questionable timing of the ERC’s push for mandatory contestability. “With such a tight deadline, rushing into this new energy regime will catch consumers and businesses off guard”, Climaco said.
“Faced with the risk of brown-outs if supply contracts are not secured by the February deadline, the ERC’s policy could force consumers into entering unfavorable contracts just to meet this unrealistic deadline set by the ERC. The freedom of ordinary consumers to decide what is best for themselves is being threatened by this policy and in the end, they will bear the brunt of this unjust regulations as big commercial and industrial establishments may merely tuck-in the additional cost of electricity in their expenses”. Climaco added.
Faced with unrealistic and anti-consumer policies, business groups, academic institutions, consumers and civil society must continue to rally together and have their voices heard, Climaco concluded.