DOE eyes open access by 2012

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Energy (DOE) is targeting the start of the open access and retail competition (OARC) scheme on September 2012, the country’s top energy official said.

Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said they are proposing open access to be deferred to September 2012 “because there are infrastructure, system and procedural challenges and issues.”

He said they are optimistic they would be able to address all these issues on time.

“We’re almost 100-percent sure we will be able to do that by our committed timeline,” he said.

The DOE is set to submit the proposed timeline to the Joint Congressional Power Commission (JCPC) for evaluation. The JCPC is created under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) to oversee the implementation of the law.

As envisioned in the EPIRA or Republic Act 9136, OARC will introduce competition in the retail supply segment of the electric power industry.

Under open access, customers can freely choose their electricity service provider. This means that electricity end-users with an average monthly peak demand of one megawatt can choose from whom to procure their electricity service.

Through OARC, retail electricity suppliers (RES) can tailor their supply packages to provide customers with the best value based on their power consumption profile and other preferences.

According to the EPIRA, the introduction of OARC will be gradual, starting first with end-users with a 12-month average demand of at least one MW. The coverage shall be expanded after two years to customers with a 750-kw individual or aggregated demand.

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) last month approved the deferment of OARC which was supposed to kick off on Dec. 26, 2011.

Energy Undersecretary Josefina Patricia Asirit, on the other hand, said the DOE would want to make sure that the proposed timetable would be able meet the rules and regulations of the ERC.

“We need to harmonize the new proposed timeline with that of ERC’s rules and regulations,” she said.

She said there are certain factors that they need to consider before adopting the new timeline for OARC.

“We are looking at various scenarios and we have factors to consider such as the generation capacities, level of supply and demand, readiness of DU sector, readiness of contestable market, readiness of RES. We have to ensure that we have a fluid transition,” she added.