Power firms complied with market share cap in 2008

MANILA, Philippines - The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said Friday that power generation companies have complied with the market share cap set by the law.

In a report, the ERC said the generating capacity of the power firms had been within the market limit and that no generation company nor any other entity has violated the market share limitations per grid and national grid for 2008.

As provided for under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), no company or related group can own, operate or control more than 30 percent of the installed generating capacity of a grid and 25 percent of the national installed generating capacity.

Based on the EPIRA, ERC is mandated to review and set the market share cap every 15th day of March or as often as it may deem necessary.

For 2009, the commission has set the market share limitation in the Luzon grid at 3,199,268.40 kilowatts; the Visayas grid, 493,594.62 kilowatts; and the Mindanao grid, 518,872.80 kilowatts.

For the national grid as a whole, the market cap was set at 3,509,779.85 kilowatts.

The 2009 market share limits, ERC said, are slightly higher than in 2008’s 3,018,271.20 kilowatts for Luzon; 491,181.12 kilowatts for the Visayas; and 511,004.40 kilowatts for the Mindanao grid.

Based on ERC’s monitoring, the state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor) remained a dominant player in the power industry last year.

Napocor’s power plants and contracted independent power producers (IPP) continue to account for bulk of the Luzon and the Visayas grids’ total capacity at 7,337,837 and 1,223,789 kilowatts or 69 percent and 74 percent, respectively.

Other generating firms which operate in Luzon and Visayas grid, are First Gen Corp., SN Aboitiz Power Corp., Quezon Power Philippines Ltd., Trans-Asia Power Generation Corp. and Aes Corp. for Luzon; and Toledo Power Corp.. Panay Power Co., Cebu Private Power Corp. and Energy Development Corp.