August 26, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The highest govt of the Power Regulatory Fee is pushing for a key modification to the aggressive choice course of (CSP) tips to hurry up the approval of energy provide offers.
ERC chairman and CEO Francis Saturnino Juan has referred to as for a assessment of the present methodology used to approve energy provide agreements (PSAs), saying the company ought to as a substitute honor the outcomes of the CSPs.
“The difficulty is our insistence on utilizing the outdated methodology, the cost-based assessment of the charges or the stipulated charges within the PSA, regardless that that’s not the result of the CSP,” Juan informed a latest ERC assembly.
“Maybe it’s excessive time that we have interaction the stakeholders on a attainable modification to our current tips,” he stated, implying that the present methodology may very well be violating the foundations set by the Division of Power.
Below a DOE round, distribution utilities are required to obtain all energy provide by way of a “clear, aggressive and well timed conduct” of CSPs to make sure electrical energy is delivered to end-users in any case price.
The CSP is then awarded to the technology firm that gives the bottom fee, with the ensuing PSA submitted to the ERC for approval.
Juan, nevertheless, stated the ERC has been evaluating the PSAs based mostly on the precise prices incurred by the provider, which, he stated, disregards the bottom calculated responsive bid (LCRB) from the public sale.
“That displays our place—that even when a CSP is carried out, we don’t care concerning the consequence as a result of we nonetheless have the ultimate say with regards to setting the charges,” he identified.
As such, the ERC chief is proposing that the ERC approve the LCRB of ensuing PSAs from CSPs which are compliant with the rules and present no indicators of anti-competitive habits.
The transfer, he stated, might enhance the effectivity of approving energy provide offers consistent with efforts to resolve the ERC’s longstanding backlog and encourage extra investments within the sector.
“The results of that’s decrease costs for our distribution utilities and for our shoppers,” Juan emphasised.
At the moment, the nation’s vitality regulator has round 5,000 pending instances awaiting decision.
These instances embrace PSAs, dispute resolutions, unreleased present trigger orders, fee reset and capital expenditure functions.
