Meralco eyed to carry out power scheme

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said yesterday that the Special Program to Enhance Electricity Demand (SPEED) should be carried out by the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

"This will not affect Meralco’s financial condition because this will be based on incremental sales." ERC acting chairperson Leticia Ibay said, when asked about the possible impact of the program on the financial position of the company if the Supreme Court decision on the refund becomes final and executory.

According to Ibay, this program would even enhance the utility firm’s sales because it will have a market for its unused electricity.

Ibay, however, said that up to now, the Lopez-controlled power distribution utility firm has yet to submit its application for SPEED. "We haven’t received any application from Meralco to implement the SPEED," she said.

Last October, the ERC issued a provisional authority allowing the National Power Corp. (Napocor)’s big industrial and commercial customers to avail of a 10 to 80 centavos discount on their incremental electricity consumption.

SPEED was originally planned to be offered to Meralco customers only, but the scope of the program was expanded to all other distribution utility-customers of Napocor.

The ERC said the discount rates shall be applied to the incremental consumption which is the actual monthly energy consumption over customer baseline load (CBL) for the quarter, fixed for the duration of the program and deducted from the effective selling rate of Napocor.

Napocor proposed to implement SPEED in two phases. Phase I will provide discounts to industrial and commercial customers with a nominal demand of at least 1,000 kilowatts.

Phase II, on the other hand, will provide discounts to industrial and commercial customers with a nominal demand of at least 500 kW.

The ERC pointed out that there would be no adverse effect on Napocor’s other customers during such time that the SPEED is in place.

The program when implemented is expected to encourage needed business activity and jobs to jumpstart the economy, which will ultimately benefit the end customers.