Philippines: PIPPA calls for urgent resolution on TRO against RCOA

Philippines: PIPPA calls for urgent resolution on TRO against RCOA

THE PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENT POWER PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION (PIPPA) IS PUSHING
FOR THE RESOLUTION OF THE TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER (TRO) PASSED BY
SUPREME COURT AGAINST THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RETAIL COMPETITION AND OPEN
ACCESS (RCOA).

"The recent TRO issued by the Supreme Court has the effect of putting on
hold aspects of the RCOA, specifically the timeline for lowering of
thresholds," PIPPA said in a statement.

"We support the move from DOE and ERC for a unified policy on RCOA. We hope
that this will finally settle the issues and the industry will already move
forward to attain the objectives of EPIRA," they added.

The Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001 mandates the RCOA,
which allows electricity end-users with at least one megawatt of peak demand
to choose their suppliers.

Under the new policies and regulations by the Department of Energy (DOE) and
Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), end-users are required to choose between
23 retail electricity suppliers (RES) designated by ERC on February 26,
2017.

The Supreme Court released a TRO on a petition filed by the Philippine
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), Riverbanks Development Corp.,
Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) and San Beda College Alabang.

"The Court noted that petitioners have established a clear, legal right to
the TRO considering that the EPIRA Law provides for the voluntary migration
of end-users to the contestable market and there appears to be no basis for
the mandatory migration being ordered by the DoE and the ERC through the
questioned issuances," the Supreme Court said.

The petitioners said the new resolutions are "unconstitutional for usurping
legislative authority, violating the right to due process and equal
protection and the non-impairment clause as well as for being unreasonable
exercise of police power."

Customers must be given a choice to continue their contracts with their
distribution utility suppliers, the petitioners added. Mandatory
contestability will remove their freedom to do so.

The DOE, ERC and the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) said they
will form a new policy that will make it easier to shift to an open market
scheme.

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Link to Original Article:
http://powerphilippines.com/2017/02/28/pippa-calls-urgent-resolution-tro-aga
inst-rcoa/

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John Diecker
APT Consulting Group Co., Ltd.

www.aptthailand.com