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The National Power Corp. (Napocor) said yesterday  it welcomes any investigation on its operations amid speculations some of its officials are engaged in price manipulation at the  wholesale electricity spot market (WESM).

“We welcome any investigation just to finally settle the allegations,” Napocor said in a statement.

The power firm said “it has always maintained transparency in all its business dealings, in accordance to all pertinent government laws and regulations. Our records will show that price volatilities in the WESM have minimal impact on our customers because they are fully contracted, and enjoying more stable rates approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC),” Napocor said.

It added that in the case of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), they are exposed at between 15 to 25 percent because they source this much from the WESM.

“Napocor is not the dominant bidder in the WESM, nor is it a price setter. We are, in fact, more of a price taker.”

At the same time, Napocor  assured its customers and the electricity-consuming public that there is no truth to speculations that there will be any increase in power rates, in the near- or medium-term, unless it has been approved by the ERC, and only after it has gone through a thorough review and analysis in a public hearing.

It said in the past two years since WESM’s operations,  its customers have continuously enjoyed stable prices that are ERC-approved and possibly the cheapest in the industry today.

Napocor explained that this was evident when, as an aftermath of super typhoons Milenyo and Reming, prices in the WESM surged. To prevent these price surges from adversely impacting retail consumer electricity prices, the ERC stepped in and ruled that the price for those periods would be an administered price, which was based on Napocor’s time-of-use (TOU) rates.

“Our forecast for the year already considers the use of oil during the summer months because of the low water levels in our hydro-powered generation plants. The costs of the increased utilization of oil during these periods, likewise, are already included in our ERC-approved TOU rates,” the Napocor statement said.