TUCP to ask ERC to refund electric coops' customers

MANILA, Philippines - Labor group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines is planning to file a petition asking the Energy Regulatory Commission to order the independent power producers and Philippine Electricity Market Corporation to refund electric cooperatives customers for the P3 to P5 per kWh increase in the generation charge from Dec. 2013 to Mar. 2014.

TUCP said that these electric cooperatives in several key provinces have also charged their consumers the price spike caused by the higher Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, prices for power when Malampaya and the three other generators went on simultaneous shutdown in December.

The TUCP also scored the ERC for gross dereliction of duty for not addressing on their own recognizance the rate increase imposed on electric cooperative consumers who are similarly situated with customers of Manila Electric Co. franchise areas.

"These electric cooperative consumers were forced to pay the outrageous increases because the TRO (temporary restraining order) issued by the Supreme Court did not cover them. However, when the ERC ruled that the Meralco rates should be brought down because the power generators colluded to artificially bring up the prices it should also have moved to strike down the similar increases in Luzon electric co-ops,"Gerard Seno, executive vice president of the Associated Labor Unions-TUCP, said.
 
TUCP Executive Director Louie Corral expressed disappointment over the inaction of the ERC and the silence of PEMC and the IPPs.

"The power producers and their partners in crime are merrily counting billions of pesos in profit. We will ask them to refund the customers with legal interest. They cannot get away with economic sabotage, treason and plunder. ERC wake up," Corral said.

Corral identified the 12 electric cooperatives and the amount of electricity that purchased electricity from WESM and their corresponding rate increases over the same contested period as CAGELCO-1 (Cagayan Electric Cooperative), P2.79/kwh; BATELEC-1 (Batangas Electric Coopeative Inc.), P3.22/kwh; ISECO (Ilocos Sur Electric Cooperative Inc.), P3.51/kwh; FLECO (First Laguna Electric Cooperative Inc.), P1.93/kwh; NEECO II-A1 (Nueva Ecija Electric Cooperative), P1.69/kwh; CASURECO II (Camarines Sur Electric Cooperative), P6.74/kwh; SORECO-1 (Sorsogon Electric Cooperative), P3.72/kwh; DECORP (Dagupan Electric Corporation), P2.99/kwh; LUELCO (La Union Electric Cooperative Inc.), P2.48/kwh; PANELCO III (Pangasinan Electric Cooperative), P4.54/kwh; PENELCO (Peninsula electric Cooperative, Bataan), P2.83/kwh; and TARELCO-2 (Tarlac Electric Cooperative Inc.), P4.29/kwh. These charges are passed on customers and reflected in their December 2013 to March 2014 generation charge billings.

"We are filing this petition with great disbelief over how inutile the ERC and Department of Energy are. We hope that through this prayer they will come to their senses and void the increase and order the cooperatives to return consumers’ hard-earned money," Corral said.

On March 3, the ERC ordered the PEMC to re-compute the price of electricity at the WESM after they determined that the P4.15 kWh for December 2013 and the P5.33 kWh for January 2014 priced by Meralco is unreasonable and was artificially driven up by collusion among the power generators.