Government urged to ensure steady power supply at lower cost

A consumer advocacy group has urged the government not to be remiss in its responsibility to ensure the steady supply of power at a reasonable cost to the country’s consumers.

National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms Inc. (Nasecore) president Pete Ilagan expressed concerns over recent reports that power rates may go up due to the impending disruption in electricity supply brought about by a possible shutdown of the 230-kilovolt (kV) Sucat-Araneta-Balintawak line.

“All these alleged costs should pass through the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for public hearing first,” he said.

The ERC is a quasi-judicial body created under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) to regulate the power industry. According to the Nasecore official, the ERC should be able to examine the repercussion of this case to the electricity consumers and the industry as a whole.

“There should be no arbitrary charging of these costs,” Ilagan said.

Former officials of the National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) were being blamed for the potential decommissioning of the transmission facility.

A senior TransCo official, who requested anonymity, said “from 2000 to 2006 — starting when the case was filed — it seems that TransCo management did not know what to do, they did not do anything.”

When the case was filed in court in 2000, it was the time when the National Power Corp. (Napocor) was still not restructured. When the EPIRA was passed in 2001, TransCo was created to handle the transmission business of Napocor.

“By 2006, Alan Ortiz was already president of TransCo (replacing Federico Puno), and I think as president he should have pushed hard to win the case for TransCo because of the huge implication. They should have focused their efforts to win the case,” the source said.

The TransCo source said Puno and Ortiz should have presented all the merits of the case.

“Now we have this big problem of decommissioning the transmission line, rerouting the same at a cost of over P1 billion, while causing massive blackouts that would greatly inconvenience the public,” he said. – Donnabelle Gatdula