The Philippine Competition Commission said it will investigate the series of power outages and shutdowns of power plants amid allegations of collusion or abuse of dominance by industry players to increase electricity prices.
The recent spate of scheduled and forced outages in Luzon by different power plants reportedly reduced power reserves, caused calls for red or yellow alerts and induced rotating brownouts, which in turn sparked complaints from the public.
PCC, the anti-trust body, said it would assess whether the recent outage of power plants were manipulated to increase electricity prices or were valid unplanned breakdowns that affected supply.
Under the Philippine Competition Act, the agency is mandated to promote fair market competition, prohibit anti-competitive behavior among businesses across sectors, including the power sector and advance consumer welfare in the process.
It warned power generation companies from engaging in anti-competitive or collusive behavior which is punishable by the competition law with fines of up to P250 million and imprisonment of responsible officers of up to seven years.
The agency’s enforcement unit said it welcomes the call for technical reports or audits by the Energy Department over concerned power plants and their control rooms and any lead or information from the public or experts in the field.
PCC said that while it has primary and original jurisdiction over competition concerns, it also acknowledges the technical expertise and regulatory functions of the Energy Department and the Energy Regulatory Commission in overseeing the power industry.
The commission said it aimed to deepen its ties and advance its previous discussions with the Energy Department and the ERC towards a memorandum of agreement to facilitate market competition and investigation in the power sector.