Angeles power consumers overcharged by P528.9 M?

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – A consumers’ group has urged the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to look into its claim that tens of thousands of electric consumers in this city have been overcharged by the Angeles Electric Co. (AEC) by as much as P528.9 million since 2005.

In a letter addressed to the ERC commissioners, Pete Ilagan, president of the National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms Inc. (Nasecor), presented a study by his group indicating that AEC allegedly overcharged consumers by P108.9 million in 2005, P54.8 million in 2006, P160.1 million in 2007, and P205 million in 2008.

“We find this over-collection alarming because we take this as an abuse of market power when AEC decided to deliberately keep to itself these over-collections instead of disclosing these by way of a petition to reduce its current rates,” Ilagan said.

The STAR contacted the office of AEC president Gerry Nepomuceno for comment but was asked to wait for a return call. No call, however, was returned.

Copies of the Nasecor letter were furnished Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras and the heads of the Senate and House committees on energy.

The AEC is owned by relatives of former Angeles mayor Francisco Nepomuceno, who is a member of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), the same party to which ERC chairperson Zenaida Ducut belonged to when she was congresswoman of Pampanga’s second district. Ducut is a known ally of former President, now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who appointed her to the post.

Ilagan said, “Had the ERC done its primary duty of reviewing the annual revenues it granted the AEC, it would have easily discovered these over-collections which Nasecor, on its own initiative, has discovered.”

His letter presented a table that showed AEC’s yearly total revenues, cost of power, actual distribution revenues, approved unbundled revenues, and amount of overcharging.

From 2005 to 2008, Ilagan said AEC had allegedly overcharged consumers in the amount of P528,977,139.

“To determine if AEC was getting its ERC-approved annual revenue requirement, Nasecor studied AEC’s 2006 to 2009 annual reports and compared its ERC reports, and compared its ERC-approved annual revenue requirements against its actual annual revenues,” Ilagan said in his letter.

He said the ERC “blatantly failed to closely monitor and review the operations of AEC” to also find out the electric firm’s “systems loss percentage which should be reflected if the utility is operating efficiently or not.”

“We urge the ERC to immediately conduct a regulatory audit of AEC and reduce its rates and stop over-collection,” Ilagan said.

He also asked that AEC be made to refund consumers for the overcharges.