The Philippine Independent Power Producers Association warned that delays in the implementation of the retail competition and open access, or RCOA, will affect the timeline of lowering the thresholds to other customers.
PIPPA, the association of power generators in the country, expressed concern over the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order that indefinitely stopped the implementation and enforcement of the regulations issued by the Energy Department and the Energy Regulatory Commission on RCOA.
“The recent TRO issued by the Supreme Court has the effect of putting on hold aspects of the RCOA, specifically the timeline for lowering of thresholds,” the group said.
PIPPA is an association of 28 companies engaged in power generation. Collectively, PIPPA’s members have 13,549.4 megawatts of grid installed capacity or 82.8 percent of the country’s total and serve millions of Filipinos in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
RCOA is mandated by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 but implemented only in 2013. It aims to institutionalize competition in the supply of electricity, allowing the electricity end-users to choose their suppliers based on low price and other factors.
The Energy Department and ERC were supposed to implement RCOA for customers with one megawatt and above consumption on February 26 and reducing the threshold to 750 kilowatts by June.
“PIPPA supports the implementation of RCOA and hopes that the issues before the Supreme Court will be resolved with finality at the soonest possible time. We support the move from DoE and ERC for a unified policy on RCOA. We hope that this will finally settle the issues and the industry will already move forward to attain the objectives of EPIRA,” PIPPA said.