By FROILAN GALLARDO
Special Correspondent
THE government is planning to revive a controversial electric market scheme that was earlier opposed by cooperatives and electricity distributors in Mindanao.
Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) chief Josefina Patricia Asirit said the idea of reviving the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (Wesm) came as more power plants would be operational in Mindanao by end of 2016.
Asirit said they want Mindanao power distributors to have the flexibility to resell their excess electricity, which they could not under the existing set-up and contracts.
“Actually, the electric cooperatives are not opposed to the idea of a power spot market. What they opposed is the proposed billing and we are fixing them,” Asirit said.
The Department of Energy introduced the idea of Interim Mindanao Electricity Market (Imem) two years ago but was roundly opposed by electric cooperatives and utilities who feared that it would result to higher electricity rates.
The Northern Mindanao Electric Cooperatives (Norminco) predicted that electricity rates would jack up to P32 per kilowatt hour as soon as trading starts at the spot market.
The group said this would result in a wipeout of families and small businesses that use only 30 kilowatt hours to 100 kilowatt hours a month.
Rep. Rufus Rodriguez has reminded the Energy Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy that the House resolution stopping the installation of an electricity spot market in Mindanao is still effect.
Rodriguez said he would ask for a congressional investigation if the government agencies would defy the resolution.
“We will continue our opposition to the spot market. It will leave thousands of families and small businesses without electricity because they cannot afford it,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said the House committee issued the resolution after Mindanao cooperatives and utility distributors opposed the plan during a public hearing in Cagayan de Oro in March 2014.
“I will immediately ask for an investigation if they will defy our resolution,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said it is untrue that the power supply would be stabilized when two more coal plants become operational this year.
He said there is still a distribution problem which the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines has yet to solve to stop the bombings of its transmission towers.
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