ERC wants open access in power sector in place by Dec. 26

The Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday said it will go for a Dec. 26 deadline to have open access and retail competition in the power sector for consumers using 1 megawatt or more electricity. Open access gives bulk power users the right to choose their own supplier, a measure the ERC says can lower the cost of electricity. The regulator has declared that open access be implemented on Dec. 26, ERC director Francis Saturnino Juan told reporters in an interview. Open access will allow large power users of one megawatt and above to choose their own supplier. "In the decision also of the commission, it took note of several other issues that need to be addressed before the actual implementation on December 26 and also the other requisites," Juan said. The commission has created a technical working group to address such issues as information technology infrastructure. "We will have [Dec. 26] as the timeline for now and we will gear all our efforts to attaining that or being able to finish all preparations before that date," he said. Juan said some of the issues being discussed by the group include settlement and billing in coordination with the Energy Department. "Hopefully, we'll be able to do all these things before December 26. Our target is to implement it by then," he said. Juan said ERC is also coordinating with the distribution utilities, retail electricity suppliers and large power users. "They will have to also keep that [deadline] in mind. For instance, the distribution utilities will be contracting for the supply of their captive customers," he said. The ERC decided to declare open access six months after certain preconditions are met including the 70 percent privatization of the generating assets of National Power Corp. and 70 percent privatization of Napocor's contracted capacities, according to the ERC director. "We just followed the earlier resolution issued by the commission. So, in June when the ERC has found the preconditions to have been complied with…" he said. — VS, GMA News