The Energy Department is pushing for “mandatory” retail competition and open access that will allow more consumers to choose their own electricity suppliers this year.
Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla told reporters the agency wanted to bring down the threshold for open access and retail competition to consumers with an average monthly demand of 750 kilowatts from the current 1 megawatt.
“We will try to hit mandatory open access by end of the year for the 750-kw threshold,” Petilla said.
Petilla said he had initiated talks with the Energy Regulatory Commission regarding the lowering of the threshold for open access and retail competition, as mandated by Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001.
Open access allows large power users to choose their own suppliers. Currently, only power users with a monthly average demand of 1 MW and above are allowed to choose their own suppliers.
EPIRA mandates that the threshold for open access be lowered to 750 kW from 1 MW, two years upon implementation of the law. Open access was implemented in December 2013.
Petilla said several large power users with total capacity of over 1,300 MW had not yet switched suppliers. They are classified as captive customers of distribution utilities, as open access remains voluntary.
The government decided to initially implement open access voluntarily due to difficulties faced by costumers.
Petilla, however, said the issue of who would supply the power users under the lower threshold should be addressed. “Take note the reason why they are still captive is there is no supplier,” he said.