Banking giant BDO-Unibank called the attention of Meralco for its failure to comply with an order from the Energy Regulatory Commission directing the power distributor to act on BDO’s application for electric connection.
In a letter sent to the House of Representatives, BDO’s law firm noted that the ERC eventually ruled in 2022 in favor of BDO.
According to the letter, Meralco asked for a 684-square meter land as a condition to connect a BDO development to electric supply.
Meralco officials at the House hearing confirmed BDO’s application for power connection for an expansion project in Makati City which would require “several hundreds of megawatts.”
The Meralco representatives said the required amount of electric supply would need a site for a new substation, but “the problem is there is no such available space already” in the Makati CBD, thus their request for BDO to provide the land.
Meralco will shoulder costs for equipment and take care of everything “except the land,” they said.
The representatives said it was standard operating procedure for Meralco to ask for land to build new substations in cases of “new developments.”
They said if Meralco absorbed the cost of land in connecting big users to new supply, “all our costs” would go up.
Among the proposals made by Meralco to BDO was to integrate the substation in the bank’s “proposed vertical development” or build the facility underground.
“There is apparent discriminatio n because Meralco has imposed a burdensome condition on BDO concerning the latter’s application for electricity service,” read BDO’s letter addressed to lawyer William S. Pamintuan, head of Meralco’s legal services, and submitted to the franchise committee.
Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel asked Meralco if the negotiations with BDO were in a stalemate, to which utility officials replied that the bank’s energy requirements would entail “higher technical losses” if no new substation was built.
“To serve the needs of BDO, we’ll get the power from not so near substation facilities,” said the Meralco officials.
But Pimentel lamented that the ERC directive on the BDO-Meralco case had not been implemented until now.
“There was a decision for Meralco to act on this but after two years, until now, there has been no action from Meralco,” the lawmaker said.
The BDO letter to the House committee, according to Pimentel, “is a very serious concern.”