Despite charges of corruption, one of the major accomplishments the previous administration had achieved was the legislation of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) or Republic Act 9136. In here we find the de-monopolization of and privatization of the debt-beleaguered National Power Corporation, the promotion of rural electrification by encouraging electric cooperatives and the establishment of an independent regulatory board to approve or resolve retail electricity rates charged by transmission and distribution companies.
But the heart of the law is the expressed intent of the government to encourage retail competition in an “open access” regime to empower consumers to have a say on who will supply them with their electricity requirements. Put it simply, consumers can soon get electricity ordinarily as subscribing to a cable or phone company.
If my memory serves me well, EPIRA was signed into law ten years ago and open access should have been in place five years ago as envisioned. But it didn’t happen. It took another five years for the Department of Energy (DOE) to say “it’s a go” or only recently. Weeks ago, the DOE said that the requirements for declaring an open access would soon be met which according to Senator Angara “Is a big step in reforming our power sector, which for years has allowed electricity consumers to remain a captive market to power distributors, and to pay one of the highest electricity rates in Asia.”
Open access is already happening in many parts of Australia as well as in Canada, Sweden, Finland and Norway.
There are many possibilities to an open access regime. First, it does not only give the common household the power to choose a more affordable and reliable electric company, it allows them to participate in reducing their carbon footprint by buying from environment- friendly suppliers. In so doing, power producers will be encouraged to explore and harness renewable sources with which the Philippines has abundant supply such as geothermal and hydroelectrical energy.
Second, it encourages the development of a “smart-grid.” The smart grid can be likened to our internet where, according to Senator Angara, “end-users can monitor their energy consumption and choose where to source it from.”
If I may add, the smart grid does more than just allowing consumers to monitor and source their energy from. The Australian model does a better job by allowing consumers to be energy suppliers themselves.
Really? Yes it’s really just like the internet where exchanges can happen in the network. The only difference is that, while the internet allows you to share your digital files, a smart energy grid lets you return the energy you produce from the comfort of your house. Say for example if you’re using solar panels as your main source of electricity at home, you can sell whatever excess energy you produce by connecting it to the smart grid which will then be used by the power company to redistribute to factories or homes that require additional energy.
While it is quite a long shot to emulate these more advance models, for the time being, we need to take advantage of open access on the basis of how efficient and stable the service that powers our home, the cost that we pay for the service. But above all, if that time will come that we are to choose what sort of energy that goes to our home, we should choose those that source their energy from clean sources not from suppliers that use or rely fossil fuel for power generation; those that use natural and renewable sources; those companies that can be trusted to harness energy without damaging the environment so we may secure and bequeath these resources to the next generation.
With open access, we pay for what we value.
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