Meralco welcomes COA audit

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) welcomes an audit of its books by the Commission on Audit, the head of Meralco’s regulatory management office, Monico Jacob, said.

He, however, pointed out that they have to look into the parameters of the COA audit.

“Since COA is saying that the audit is rate-related and is in connection with the Supreme Court ruling of 2006, then we are willing to comply and we welcome the audit,” he said.

According to Jacob, they “wanted to make sure that the purpose of the audit was clear” and not because a private entity like the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms is calling for an audit.

“Therefore, had we agreed to the audit earlier, we would have been subjected to a general audit. But now, they have a definite scope of the audit and that’s why we have agreed to comply,” he said.

“We will provide COA with what they need for the conduct of the audit.”

Jacob said they have yet to determine the exact date when the audit will start but said this may commence anytime this year.

“They are looking are looking at a base year of 2004 and 2007 but we have to sit down with them regarding the extent and scope of the audit,” Jacob said.

Meralco earlier argued that COA has no jurisdiction over private corporations unless it is rate-related and public interest is at stake.

Meanwhile, Meralco head of utility economics Ivanna dela Peña said their customers are likely to experience a minimal increase in their bills this month.

Dela Peña explained that their customers would pay only an additional one centavo per kilowatthour (kwh) this month.

She noted that generation charges went down to P4.417 per kwh in August from P4.43 per kwh in July.

She said the drop in generation charge in August was brought about by the cool climate.  But she noted that this computation did not include the impact of the price spikes in the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM).

“The lower generation charge does not include line rental (for the use of the transmission line) and there is still no billing from the WESM (arising from the price volatilities),” Dela Peña said.

The Meralco official noted that the impact of lower generation charges would absorb the supposed increase in the company’s rates resulting from a decision of the Energy Regulatory Commission’s recent approval which allows Meralco to collect 2.4 centavos per kwh to recoup its under-recoveries from August 2006 to May 2007.

On the other hand, Philippine Electricity Market Corp. from (PEMC) executive vice president Mario Pangilinan noted there was a slight easing of prices in the WESM. PEMC operates the WESM.

Pangilinan said they were able to implement some remedial measures to cushion the impact of the transmission congestion in Bulacan which caused the spike in WESM prices last July.

But the PEMC official said they are still calculating the actual WESM prices for the month of August.

“We still don’t have the actual figure of the impact (to prices),” Pangilinan said.